Friday, December 24, 2021

Violet

And the sky was made of amethyst
And all the swallows were just like little fish
You should learn when to go
You should learn how to say "no"

Birding with da boys on Thursday was okay socially, but not a greatly birdy day at Hempstead Lake STPK. So after the lack luster walk some of us reconvened at Valley Stream STPK for the previously reported Louisiana Waterthrush. Ed thrasher, Bob Prothonotary and I did not succeed, but while there, Bob was vexed by alerts to Whatsapp groups that were no longer ( or so he though ) of interest to him. I showed him how to mute the alerts.

Some time later, when we were just about ready to call it a day, an alert came in. Violet-green Swallow near Albany. WTF!? A potential first state record. And there was a picture. A perfect picture. That was most certainly a VGSW. Holy crap! Bob wanted the alerts back again.

Ed was nonplussed, and not interested. That is characteristically Ed. Bob knew the significance but was both interested and cautious. That is characteristically Bob. I knew the significance, checked the time, and immediately reasoned that without dawdling we could be there in a reasonable amount of time with ample time to search for this mega bird. This is charac....  Oh, you know the rest.

We found a place to leave Bob’s car, and bid Ed adieu. We hit the road with much anticipation. Holy crap; a mega rarity that will be a first NYS record if accepted, -and- it was captured with excellent photos.

On the way, it started to flurry! WTF? Snow? Oh wait, we were upstate, they don’t believe in spring until absolutely forced to. 


Snow flakes

We arrived on site and recognized both birders from up there ( Albany +/- )  and from down here ( Long Island +/- ). Some folks were walking out of the trail while we were walking in, but all reports were negative. Undaunted, we pressed on.

To our left was a wetland, part of the Mohawk River. To our right was the remains of the historic NYS Erie canal. Flying about were lots of Tree Swallows, Northern Rough-winged Swallows, and one Barn Swallow.

Sure, trying to find a similarly plumed bird among the swirling mass of swallows was a challenge, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Some temporarily resting birds were spotted on fallen trees in the canal, but none were the one we were looking for.

Bob and I were a bit surprised that a bird of such magnitude did not stimulate a greater response. Sure it was a week day, but birders call in sick all the time ( or so I’ve heard ) and with so many “working” from home, the ability to take an extended “bathroom” break is an option. And yet there was no where near what we would have expected in terms of the number of people searching.

I met John Hershey, the fellow with the remarkable dumb? luck who found the bird. The thing was, that he didn’t know it until he got home and reviewed his photos from that mornings walk. As he put it, he had shifted away from birding and gotten into photography. As a result he was focused on the images he could capture, and not so much on seeing and Iding the birds present. When he got home though, he new what he had and to his credit and got the word out.

After a few hours of studying the swallows unsuccessfully, we decided to refresh ourselves with a meal at Pancho’s Mexican restaurant. When we returned, there were even fewer people looking. By the end of the day I had seen a nice number of species that brought my Saratoga bird list up to 49, and also saw a muskrat and a beaver. But no swallow. Dang. Sunset meant it was time to go home, and endure the ‘drive of shame’.  

Beaver

Remember that Barn Swallow I mentioned?  Well there was one, and though the flock moved around the wetland quite a bit, when we studied where ever they concentrated and congregated, picking out that one bird was easy. My conclusion was that if the VGSW was present we would have picked it out as well.

Another dip. Add this to the missed Bean Goose that was just a short way north of here also in Saratoga county. OTOH prior to that I did succeed in getting great looks at Pine Grosbeak for my year list. Well I guess the bad part of the incredible number of rarities and first state records is that not getting them all is inevitable. Yin and Yang at work.