This Big Year thing has its ups and downs. Since I started on December 7, 2019 I was in double digits of birds found per month until May 2020. Since then I haven’t hit double digits once. Part of that it due to the fact I already have a lot of birds on my list, and part is due to lulls in bird activity.
It has been a long while since I had a streak of new birds. I had one this week. On 9/26/2020 I found a continuing bird (this means someone else found it first). Now practically all of my birds that are a somewhat rare are continuing birds (the one exception is my Alder Flycatcher in May). This was a bird I really wanted – a Hudsonian Godwit. My NYC birder friend told me he had seen one in Argentina, but never here. He is not a chaser, but he appreciates finding a rarity.
The next day a birder friend of mine announced 40 American Pipits at one of the local turf farms. After a few minutes hesitation I was off. As I arrived she was pulling out, but stayed to chat and we relocated the Pipits through the scope after they flew noisily over. No photo, but a pretty bird!
The last bird I have been chasing for two weeks – it was at a local pond, but had a habit of going in and out of the Phragmites, so not always visible. About a week before I believe I had heard it in the reeds. I struggled with my recording app and only got a snippet – the expert I consulted thought it might be, I was pretty sure it might be, but not that it was – so no check.
I returned almost daily at different times for another week – this bird had become my white whale. I came by after a fairly long morning of birding to see if I could see him. As I drove back down the trail, he crossed the ROAD?
Why does a Gallinule cross the road? To give Barbara her white whale checkmark! When I first saw it, I thought it looked like a chicken – but no, it was the Common Gallinule that had been haunting my bird dreams for weeks. Also no photo because I was driving and it was quick. But – Check!
The fourth day did not yield a new bird, although it was a nice walk in my new favorite birding place – Snake Den Farm. I was the first one in and about halfway to the fertile birding territory what I thought was a feral/barn cat walked on to the road about 40 feet in front of me. Upon further observation I realized that was one big cat. Camera in hand I snapped 8 shots, only one of which is good, of a Bobcat. It was a singular experience that I have come to appreciate even more because my birder friends were so excited and envious of the encounter.
Zen birding lesson of the day – sometimes you get a new bird and sometimes you get something even better.
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