Visitor from Arkansas

Had a truly lovely day yesterday. Started out with a beach/bird sit at Quonnie. Was joined by some of my regulars - Ed & Ann - the birds were mostly the usuals. Then an unusual person showed up. He was from Arkansas and just stopping in to Rhode Island on his way to Maine. He told us what species he was looking for and we proceeded to try to find them - The first we found was a Roseate Tern.

He said it was a life bird for him and I asked how many birds he had. He said with the Roseate Tern it was 900. WOW! He got two more life birds that I don't remember clearly - I think it was the Forster's Tern and Laughing Gull -- but I'm less than certain. We tried to get him to do a dance, but he demurred. He's well travelled internationally and recently got 300 new birds on a trip to Alaska. We gave him a few other local options to bird and bid him goodbye.

Went on a Whale Watch in the afternoon -- which was really a bird watch for my little band. We didn't see any whales, so the next trip is free. But I did get 3 new Life birds and 1 Rhode Island Life bird - wasn't expecting that on a trip with so much turbulence (we lost one birder for a bit, but she rallied) and fog which limited the visibility. It is possible that the rarest sighting, an Arctic Tern, may get rejected by the ebird committee because we don't have a photo. But we know what we saw and that is what matters in the long run.

Had a lovely ride with my College Chum Elinor, a new birder who I met yesterday and two longer term birders. We enjoyed spotting birds and think maybe my patch to mitigate seasickness might have been making me hallucinate a stretch of 2 story buildings through the fog @7 times during the trip.

Came home to a clean house, a hot shower and soup. Although I did bird from the car a bit this morning, it is nice to have an excuse to stay home today. Be safe my friends.