A Few Rarities

Saturday was a pretty day for our MD visit and Joyce and I got to watch our granddaughter Bre play soccer (photo).  However, still nothing new on the bird rarity scene as we left the playing field and headed toward Baltimore.  Our hotel right on the harbor front was a few notches up in quality from my usual overnight digs on the birding highway.   We arrived with enough time before the wedding to rest up.  With our wedding duds on, we took the shuttle bus running between the hotel and the wedding venue, the American Visionary Art Museum, with its sculptures modeled after a hot air balloon and an early airplane hanging aloft (photo).  The bride and groom were not teenagers, but were still a lot younger than we are.  And the vows spoken and the readings given were very young, quite spirited, and clever.  There were many young children in attendance who were asked to participate from time to time. I like that. The dinner reception which followed was upstairs in the museum, two floors up.  It was great seeing and chatting with all of Joyce's cousins.  As usual the music was too loud, but it was a young people's night.  We did get in a dance (slow) before we called it a night and returned to the hotel.  I checked the email and saw that a Pink-footed Goose had been found in New Brunswick.  I went to bed wondering what I would do about it.
On Sunday we went to a lovely brunch in a restaurant nearby and I continued to wonder if I should chase the goose.  I began the drive home.  But after we got into Virginia, Joyce drove, giving me a chance to make a couple of phone calls and try a few northeastern itineraries using my wireless router and laptop.  In the end I decided to stay on course with my upcoming trip to Louisiana and go for the closer Pink-foot that will make an appearance before the end of the year.  It was also good to see that several other rarities popped up over the weekend, but none that I needed for the yearlist.

Home and No Rarity Reports

Tuesday I flew back to Norfolk from San Francisco.  You'll recall that was the day of the storm in the north midwest.  As you might guess that storm produced airport delays primarily in the Chicago area, but those trickled down through the system and affected many flights later in the day.  My flight to Las Vegas was on time, but the flight from there to Norfolk was delayed due to "mechanical problems."  As a note of interest to those who make note of obscure facts, I think this particular flight on Southwest is the longest direct flight from or to Norfolk.  Anyone know of a longer one?  My flight took off over an hour late, but because of the huge tailwind (>120mph!), I arrived in Norfolk only 20 minutes late.  The flight time was less than four hours.  See image at left for an illustration of a tailwind (web photo).
Yesterday and today have been errand days and watching the birds in the backyard where nothing particularly exciting has flown in.  Tomorrow Joyce and I will head for Baltimore for a wedding of the daughter of one of Joyce's cousins.  It should be a fun weekend.  Meanwhile I'll keep my ear to the ground for the arrival of a rarity anywhere in the ABA area.  They certainly haven't been plentiful this last week; I guess that's why they're called rarities, eh?

A Lazy Day in California

After finding that it would cost too much to fly home a day early, I decided to do some local birding.  It was fun.  No, I didn't go to Big Sur and look for Condors.  I went to a local park near Petaluma where there were ten joggers and dog walkers for every birder.  The park is an area associated with a set of sewage lagoons for the city of Petaluma.  There were lots of water birds including hundreds of Long-billed Dowitchers, American Avocets, and Black-necked Stilts.  Near the beginning of the trail around the impoundments a nice group of Tri-colored Blackbirds were croaking away (photo) [After re-examining my notes and checking in the literature, I think these were the "Bi-colored Blackbirds" which occur in Central California].  Their vocalization is quite different from that of the usually more common Red-winged Blackbirds.  There were no Red-wings at the park.  Overhead a Red-shouldered Hawk was screaming (photo).
The second place I visited was the Benicia State Recreation Area which was on the edge of the bay, so there were some Western and Clark's Grebes there.  A pair of Clark's Grebes were interacting and vocalizing (photo).  Around the edges were White-crowned Sparrows, many Song Sparrows, and a few Western Scrub-Jays and California Towhees.
During the day there was a rumor of a Smew in British Columbia and news that a few White-winged Crossbills have been seen in Maine.  So far the Smew is not firm enough to chase, and I'll get the crossbills when I go north in December, but it was nice to get the news.  Tomorrow I fly home via Las Vegas which is a much better route than going back through Minneapolis or Detroit given that a perfect storm will lash the north midwest tomorrow.

Not so Sunny California

Yesterday went more or less as planned, but unfortunately the rain and wind showed up as predicted.  Ahead of the adverse weather I was able to do some roadside birding on my way to Point Reyes.  At Rigdon Currie's house his wife and a friend were putting up fruit jams , while over lunch Rig and I caught up on what's been happening in our respective lives.  From there I birded north along the coast where I photographed the Wrentit shown here.  Other interesting birds were White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows, California Thrasher and Towhee, and a big flock of Marbled Godwits and Willets.  The house that Kate Sutherland had rented for a group of pelagikers including me was lovely.  As a group we watched a screening of "The Birds," the Hitchcock movie filmed in Bodega Bay, after which a pork chop dinner was prepared and served.  Yum! 
We all had hoped we could get offshore the following day.  But it was not to be.  Even though the final decision was postponed until 9am, the answer was the same.  We didn't go out on the ocean.  We waited for that final decision while having a full breakfast in The Tides, the restaurant right on the water.  Outside the rain was pounding and the wind was howling.  Now I have to decide what to do.  I could go back to Norfolk early.  I could bird somewhere south of here where there's better weather.  What shall I do?

In California

This was a travel day and indeed it was again "One of those days!"  All went well until I got to LA where I was to change planes for the flight to San Francisco.  That flight was moved to a new plane which delayed the arrival into San Fran by nearly two hours.  Obama had been there earlier in the day and had probably slowed things down a bit anyway.  In the exchange of planes, my bag came up missing.  I used the same car rental agency I did last time and that worked out very well again.  When I arrived at the motel, the receptionist recognized me, and when I told her I again was awaiting the delivery of an errant bag, she asked if I was carrying something I shouldn't be.  Not that I know of, I replied.  My cheapie motel didn't carry the TV channel doing the baseball playoffs, so I listened on the clock radio in the room to Joe and John on ESPN radio which turned out to be just right.  Dinner at the IHOP next door followed and the wait for the bag ended with its delivery around 11pm.  Kinda a looooong day.  Tomorrow I'm working my way north with a little birding at Point Reyes.  I'm dropping in to see Rig Currie who  is Dick Peake's cousin and with whom I traveled to Papua New Guinea some years ago.  I'm hoping the boat gets out on Sunday.  Ned Brinkley, Brian Patteson, and Kate Sutherland as well as many of the west coast pelagickers will be aboard.  I'm looking forward to spending time with all of them.

Thanks for the Scope Offers

Nothing new on the bird front, but it is certainly heartwarming to know that there are some really nice people out there.  I have been offered the use of a scope with no strings attached by three different people.  At present I'm just hanging in there and using my larger Leica scope when I can work out of the car (and not leave it behind!).  I have contacted our insurance company and under our homeowners policy it looks as if I'll be able to recover some funds which can be used toward the purchase of a replacement scope, probably next year.  In the meantime I'm enjoying being home and checking out the birds in the backyard with a cup of coffee, of course.  I'm trying to get over to Kiptopeke, but I haven't made it yet, because I've been getting some chores done and preparing for the West Coast pelagic trip this coming weekend.  I've also kept my eye on the Rare Bird Alerts and have seen Jack Snipe (AK) and Wood Sandpiper (BC) be recent one-day wonders, so no chase has been  possible.  Several other sightings around the country were of birds whose identity could not be corroborated, so I rejected them.  Right now there's an unconfirmed sighting from NV posted on ebird of a Fork-tailed Flycatcher.  I could stop on the way to CA and have a go at it IF it turns out to be genuine and stays put long enough to be seen again.  Meanwhile there are the baseball playoff games.  Yahoo!

Exotic Waterfowl

Joyce and I got started toward Pea Island NWR on the Outer Banks of NC at a pretty reasonable time.  There was very little traffic.  As we were crossing the Albemarle Sound bridge, I called Audrey Whitlock, who has been keeping track of the White-cheeked Pintail to see if she could join us.  She was in the midst of packing up for a fishing tournament at Hatteras, but would try to meet up with us later.  When we got to the refuge visitor's center and got out of the car, we discovered how strong the wind was.  It was probably blowing about 25mph and became a real nuisance in our search for the duck.  Chris Hitt, he of the lower-48 big year, was already there and reported that he hadn't found it yet.  We looked together from the platforms where it had been seen this week, but in two hours of careful scanning, we didn't find it.  Audrey called and said she was heading down to help us search.  She scanned from the road which had a better sun angle, but didn't find the duck either.  We were all getting a little hungry, so we adjourned to Whalebone Junction for lunch at Sugar Creek and Audrey continued looking.  We had no more than ordered when Audrey called to say the bird was in sight.  Chris and I left Joyce at the table and hurried back to glimpse the bird.  Audrey had left, but on the platform was Fred Alsop, a long-time friend, and his class from East Tennessee State University who were keeping track of the duck.  They also were viewing a Eurasian Wigeon.  Then it was back to meet up with Joyce who had gotten our meals as takeouts.  We dined in the comfort of our cars and Chris headed back home and Joyce and I went back to Pea Island where I tried to get a photo of the pintail (photo).  The sun angle was terrible, so I only modestly succeeded.  Whether I count this duck on my year's list depends on whether the NC bird record committee votes to accept the record as being of a wild bird and not an escape (exotic).  That vote probably won't be for awhile.  In the meantime I won't hold my breath.