In the good old days, there were a few places where one would find out about rarities. Not anymore, because there ~is~ such a thing as too much of a “good” thing. How many ABA rare bird fazebuke pages do we need to cry snake? How many wutsap, grope.me twittle, text groups, or -gasp- eburd alerts etc etc etc do we need? Plainly, there are too many.
Yes, that was a rant. It is an unfortunate sign of the times, known as the “disinformation age.” An ABA code 4 rarity shows up and dissemination of information was a bit less than forthcoming. Mind you, I did get to see it, but for those that have not or had not, where to look for updates might prove to be an exercise in frustration.
Why is this the case? All of this fragmentation hinders what many, if not most of us seek: timely information on birds so that we may experience them too. To clarify, I don’t think this is malicious, but most definitely frustrating and unfortunate to have to search multiple platforms.
I originally found out about this bird on Tuesday, and with consistent reports throughout the day Wednesday, a plan was hatched to go to see this bird on Thursday. I departed at 4:30 am and picked up Bob Prothonotary and Earic Miller.
We had an almost completely unencumbered trip. I remain perplexed that I-95, one of my least favorite roads, remains in a constant state of construction. Leaving very early was a way to ameliorate the tribulation of the former, and of dealing with others on the road, sometimes loosely referred to as other ‘drivers’.
Arriving on location at 9:30am, I was faced with a decision of whether to park in the far lot and walk to 2 miles to the last reported location, or risk driving the road. The pro parking thought was: avoid a possible ticket, the con was: it was a long walk, it might rain, and I was a bit over-tired and cranky. The uncharacteristic ‘cranky’ aside, con won.
It was slow going down a very passable unpaved road, but we eventually saw a cluster of birders. They were either glancing through scopes or taking pictures, signs arriving birders always want to see.
Sidling up, we all were able to spot our quarry tout suite. There was only a few shorebirds present, one Black-bellied Plover, one D
unlin, one Piping Plover, and the much desired European Golden Plover!
If there had been a large group of plovers, its possible it would have been a tad more challenging to pick out. However, seeing the bird it immediately struck me as being quite pot bellied. More examination showed a small bill, especially compared to the Black-bellied plover near by. Yes!
Getting a lifer is no small feat at this point, so I was very pleased with getting ABA bird number 726. No surprise it was a lifer for all three of us, but I was a bit surprised it was an actual lifer for world birder Prothonotary.
The only rub, was that the tide was extremely low. The birds were well out by the water’s edge and not giving the most glorious looks due to distance. We were very glad that we didn’t dip after the 4.5hour trip, an apparently overwhelming time duration that discouraged others from making an attempt. Curious, as it was not much longer in duration that the unsuccessful trip to dip on the Bean Goose that stopped in upstate NY after its departure from PA.
With the tide out, we decided to venture into town for coffee and then make a second pass at the Plover. This was a good idea, the incoming tide pushed the birds much closer and we got much better looks and photo opportunities. There was much rejoicing.
European Golden Plover - Nicely showing white under-wings
Black-bellied Plover L. European Golden Plover R.
Dunlin L. Black-bellied Plover R.
We shmoozed with some locals, curious about what we all were so enthralled by. One of the folks was an oysterman, and after our chat he recommended a local eatery, and we took his advice and enjoyed a superb celebratory beverage and repast.
There were many tasty choices, but we all chose oyster Po’ boys.
Po Boys and beer!
Flash forward, boy did we have good timing because Massachusetts was hit with a snow storm the day after our visit. Yikes! And as far as I can tell, the bird has not been relocated.
No comments:
Post a Comment