A 27 Hour Trans-Continental Chase – two life birds
Written 10/23/22

There have been several rarities around the lower 48 states recently. One of these is a Willow Warbler that was found on October 18th just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in California. This is the first lower 48 states record of this species. As Wikipedia says “The willow warbler is a very common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic, from Ireland east to the Anadyr River basin in eastern Siberia. It is strongly migratory, with almost all of the population wintering in sub-Saharan Africa.” I believe there are a couple of records from Alaska. I decided to go see (chase) this bird.

On Saturday morning (10/22) I left our house at shortly after 6 am. I drove to an off site parking lot near Philadelphia Airport and, after parking, took a shuttle to the airport. I was able to obtain a standby seat (Thanks Ed!) on a direct United Airlines flight to San Francisco. We were a bit late departing due to some luggage issues and we had to do a “go around” at the San Francisco airport due to some air traffic issues. These are not the kind of things that you want to have happen when on a chase. You want to get there!

We finally landed and I took the Air Train to the Rental Car Center. Once there I saw a huge line at the Avis counter and I was glad that I did not rent from Avis. I went to Budget where I had reserved a car and there was a sign that Budget customers needed to go to the Avis counter. That helped explain the long line at Avis. But I have Fast Break with Budget and there was another sign that said that Budget Fast Break customers could go directly to the level where the cars are parked and pick up their information and be on their way directly. As it played out, on the level where the cars are parked, Fast Break documents had not been made up in advance and I ended up standing in line to get to the Avis counter on that level to complete my reservation. I was only in that line about 25 minutes. Much better than what it would have been in the other line. Of course those 25 minutes seemed like 25 hours.

I finally got to my rental car and was on my way. The location of the bird was only about 60 minutes north of the airport. There was heavy traffic in the San Francisco area which did not help. I followed Waze, crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and soon turned off to the Marin Headlands which was my destination. I had directions that were posted on line that said I should park “by the fire station” and just “follow the birders”. I found the parking but there were no birders to be seen. Not a good sign. But I had additional information as to the specific location and I followed it. And again no birders. Not a good sign. Starting to bird the area, I was struck by the fact that there were no birds there. The location was within 250 yards of the Pacific Ocean and the wind was coming off the water. Cool and windy are not good conditions for seeing a small bird that likes to hang out in thickets.

After about 15 minutes another birder showed up and he had local information. The bird had been seen well up to about 1:30 that day and then was seen to fly off “down the road”. This birder had spent 7 hours over two days and only had gotten a brief glimpse of it. Not a good sign. A couple of other birders showed up and we scoured the area. It should be noted that there is no cell phone coverage there which made getting information about sightings over the past couple of days impossible.

By now it was 3:30 pm and I was figuring that I would spend the rest of the day there, find a place to lodge for the night, and be back at dawn the next day. Not a good prospect but when you have traveled across the country you cannot give up easily. Have to put the time in.

And then the bird showed up.

It showed itself in a willow thicket and I saw it and got a few documentation camera shots. And then the bird decided to really cooperate. It hung around the area for about 10 minutes putting on a great show. Perched up and gave “crippling views”. It is not a colorful bird but a remarkable vagrant.
There were three other birders there and we all got great views. We could not ask for better views.

Leaving there I headed to downtown San Francisco where there is long standing local population of Red-masked Parakeets. Certain populations of this introduced species are countable according to the American Birding Association (ABA) and this is one of those populations. I had good information from a San Francisco birding friend (Aaron Maizlish) and I easily found a small group of these birds in a park.

I ended the day with two life birds. One, the Willow Warbler, is a first record in the lower 48 states and the other, Red-masked Parakeets are residents. Quite the difference.

From there it was time to go home. I worked my way back to the San Francisco airport and was on stand-by for a United Airlines red-eye flight back to Philadelphia (Thanks Ed!). The fight was very full but at the very last minute I was able to be seated on the plane. It could have been a long night in the airport. I dozed a bit on the way home but could not get a restful sleep. We landed in Philadelphia about 8 am. I took a shuttle to get to my car and was home a bit after 9 am. About 27 hours after I had left the day before.

Great little chase. A bit tiring but great. Twenty seven hours from door to door.
A set of pictures are at http://www.thefilemyrs.com/Birding/BirdPhotographs/2022Pictures/2022_10_WarblerChase/index.html

EBird Trip Report is at https://ebird.org/tripreport/81541

Flycatchers in Arizona
Written 8/7/22

There have been two vagrant flycatchers in Arizona for several weeks. The second North American record of a Pine Flycatcher and a very rarely reported Nutting’s Flycatcher. These two birds were calling to me but various obligations kept me from chasing them. But this past week I was able to go for them. The only fly in the ointment was that both birds had been looked for recently and not been located. Vagrants do not stay forever.

On Wednesday 8/3 the chase was on. I had low expectations but there was always the slim possibility they were still there. And even though the chance of seeing them was very low, the chance of seeing them by staying at home was zero. And it always nice to bird in Arizona even in the expected high temperatures. On Wednesday morning (8/3) I played a round of golf and then Les dropped me at the local SEPTA train station where I caught a train to the airport. I was able to get a standby seat on a flight to Phoenix (Thanks Ed!) where I arrived about 9:30 pm local time. I picked up a rental car and was in a local hotel room by 10:45 pm.

My plan was to spend Thursday trying to locate the Nutting’s and spend Friday trying to locate the Pine. I figured a full day on each of them would work. One day on each should be enough to find them or be satisfied that they had gone. I was out of the motel early Thursday morning and headed to the location of the Nutting’s sightings. That was east of Tucson and about 17 miles up a “secondary” road. Unfortunately as I passed Tucson on I 10 and headed east it was apparent that there was a major traffic issue. There had been a two major crashes on the interstate and it was closed. Shut down completely. And there was no timetable to reopen the highway. Traffic was at a standstill. I got of the interstate while I could and consulted Waze and Google Maps. Both showed that I would have to travel two or more hours over secondary roads to get to the start of the 17 mile road to the last reported location of the Nutting’s. There are no easy detours in parts of Arizona. Driving that extra two hours was certainly not the best use of my time. So I went with Plan B and headed for the Pine Flycatcher location instead. It was in a campground about ½ way up Mount Lemmon, outside Tucson. I arrived there and the guard at the gate gave me the lay of the land. He knew where the bird had been seen and directed me where to park and where to concentrate my search. Frankly the area was not as birdy as I expected and I came quite familiar with the 10 or so species that were around. No other birders were there. I spent about 5 hours walking the area listening and looking. The campground was fairly empty and it was a nice but a bit warm walk. Just as I was wrapping things up a flycatcher popped up. I hoped! But my pictures were diagnostic and I soon realized it was not the Pine Flycatcher but was a Cordilleran Flycatcher that is common in that habitat. It would have been nice if it was the Pine Flycatcher but it was not. I gave up and left the area. I was satisfied that I had given it a good effort.

When I stopped for gas I took a phone call from Chris Hitt. Always great to talk to Chris. The major news he passed on was that the North American Classification Committee of the AOU (American Ornithological Society) had decided to split the Eastern Meadowlark into two species. The “new” species is the Chihuahuan Meadowlark which is the bird that birders often referred to as the “Lillian’s” race of the Eastern Meadowlark. The ABA (American Birding Association) will follow the lead of the AOU and it was now a countable new species. I have seen that bird on several occasions so I got a life bird with no new effort. After talking with Chris I drove the auto tour at Saguaro National Park. Since by now the temperature was over 100 degrees and it was quite sunny, it was a pretty quiet lap around the park. But Black-throated Sparrows are always a treat. I found a motel in south Tucson for the night. I checked traffic reports and the interstate was still closed. I had gotten off the highway just in time to keep from being stuck for hours and hours.

I was out of the motel by 6 am on Friday and headed for the location of the Nuttling’s Flycatcher. The interstate had reopened which was a nice thing. The drive entailed driving 17 miles up a rural road from the interstate to a stream crossing. I took my time because I was never sure what was around the next bend. Once there I was pleased to see another vehicle parked. More eyes the better. The owner of the vehicle identified himself as Felipe, a commercial tour guide who was there with a client from Sweden. They were also seeking the Nutting’s Flycatcher. As I got myself organized they walked up the small trail, through a gate to the target area. I soon followed them which involved going through the very difficult wire/post gate that was a challenge to get open and then get closed. I met back up with the other two and Felipe filled me in on the location. He had been there before and that was more than useful to me. He knew the bird had not been reported for about a week but he figured that it still was around but was getting harder to locate. It probably was not vocalizing and often sat quiet and still in heavy brush. I thanked Felipe for the information and prepared to start working the area. Felipe suggest the three of us stay together to coordinate the search. I was certainly agreeable to that. We walked up the dry stream bed for about 300 yards, looking and listening. There were a few Brown-crested Flycatchers in the area and they are visually somewhat similar to the sought after Nutting’s. We saw some birds and heard many more. But we remained focused on our one species search. We finally turned around and worked our way back. Not a hint of our bird after almost 90 minutes of serious effort. It was being elusive if it was even there which was doubtful. I was thinking of staying in that area but decided to go through the gate with the other two. I did not want to tackle it alone. One through the gate, Felipe suggested that before we give up, we try a bit downstream on the off chance it was there. It was worth a shot.

We worked the area and after about 10 minutes Felipe said excitedly,” I think I got the bird.” He was familiar with it in Mexico and he was making the identification on his general sense of the bird. Nothing specific, just a general sense. The bird flew and I got a glimpse of it. It landed and I reached for my camera but it flew before I could do anything. The two main things that would confirm the identification of the bird was a vocalization and the fact that this individual had a distinctive missing tip of the top mandible which had been photographed previously. The bird we saw had not vocalized and we had no chance to see the tip of the mandible in our very brief view. We talked about it and decided that it was probably the bird but the level of confidence in the identification did not pass the test of being sure. Not countable. We searched the area for about another five minutes and the bird reappeared in the top of a distant tree. It vocalized once and I took some very quick photos hoping to get any sort of image of the bird. Felipe said the vocalization was correct and my photographs, after some serious enlarging and sharpening on my phone, showed that I had obtained a lucky partial side view of the bill with the missing top mandible tip.

Confirmed! Tick! Happy birders! Mega rariety! Lots of congratulations all around. I noted that this was my 800th Continental ABA bird. A milestone.

Everything after that was anti-climatic. I said goodbye to to Felipe and his client, Tomas. Felipe was very happy that I had a confirming picture for eBird and general documentation purposes. He was sure of the vocalization but firm evidence of a photo is conclusive if anyone has a question. This bird had been not found for several days and I am sure that people will now start looking for it again. And to that I say sincerely – good luck! I cannot overstate the courtesy and skill of Felipe from Arizona Birding Adventures. He is super.

I drove the 17 miles back to the highway. It went a lot quicker than it did on the way in. I had the rest of the day to bird before flying out Saturday morning. There were no other mega rarities in the area so I headed up Madera Canyon and checked out the feeders at Santa Rita Lodge for about 90 minutes. Nothing special there but a nice assortment of canyon birds. Several Five-striped Sparrows were being seen along nearby Box Canyon Road and I headed there. Three individuals were easily heard, seen, and photographed, This special used to be a very localized bird in southern Arizona but it is expanding. On the way north to Phoenix I stopped a Sweetwater Wetlands. This is a combination waste water filtration plant and an aquifer recharge basin which was developed in the mid 90’s. It was super then for wetland birds providing habitat that is lacking in that part of the country. But unfortunately it has grown up and there is very, very little open water to see. Lots of thick vegitation that does not seen to be supporting birds. Of course being the middle of the day, with temperatures over 100 degrees, I could not expect much bird activity.

It was time to shut it down for the day. The outside temperature was 103F when I arrived up in Phoenix. I was in a motel for the night. On Saturday morning it was still 91 degrees when I drove to the airport at 4am. I flew standby on a 7 am return flight to Philadelphia. (Thanks Ed!). Les picked me up at the airport when I arrived.

It was a memorable chase on many levels. Two of those levels that come to mind are the working of the identification of the Nutting’s Flycatcher and the accomplishment of seeing/identifying 800 Continental ABA birds. Truthfully though what 800 species really shows is that Les and I are willing to travel extensively and that I am able and willing to chase rarities. 800 is not an end, just a milestone along the way. There will be other chases and I look forward to each and every one of them.

Here are some pictures from the adventure.
http://www.thefilemyrs.com/Birding/BirdPhotographs/2022Pictures/2022_08_Flycatcher_Chase/index.html

And here is my eBird trip report.
https://ebird.org/tripreport/70189

Oriental Turtle-Dove
Written 2/23/22

An Oriental Turtle-Dove appeared in a neighborhood south of San Francisco (California) on February 4th. This species is native to Japan and the far east. It rarely occurs in the US. I was traveling in the Caribbean at the time with my wife and I never expected the dove would hang around. But it was still there when we returned to Philadelphia on the 15th . The dove had settled into a small area in a nice neighborhood with very friendly residents.

I was contacting by my friend Chris Hitt, a person I have often chased birds with. He was also thinking of traveling to see the bird. But he was doing more than chasing this single species. He was thinking of going for a Whooper Swan in Washington State, then the Turtle-Dove, and then going to the Rio Grande Valley (Texas) for the Bat Falcon and the Social flycatcher. These were four ABA area life birds for him. Due to some chases I had made previously the Turtle-Dove was the only one of the four birds that I “needed”. After lots of phone calls, emails, and text messages, a plan developed. Chris would travel to Washington State for the swan and then travel down to San Francisco for the dove. I would fly to San Francisco meeting Chris there. After hopefully seeing the dove we would travel together to McAllen Texas where we would seek out the falcon and the flycatcher.

On Wednesday the 16th, Chris took an early morning flight from North Carolina to Washington State. Later that day, after some serious seeking, he got good views of the swan. On Thursday the 17th, after I had a long standing dental appointment, Les dropped me off a local train station and I rode to the airport. I went through Charlotte and by late evening local time, I had arrived in in San Francisco where Chris had arrived earlier in the day. Chris picked me up in a rental car and we spent the night in a local motel. Since Chris had arrived in San Francisco earlier in the day he had gone and seen the Turtle-Dove. That was his second of his four target birds.

At sunrise on the Friday the 18th Chris, myself and about a dozen other birders were standing at an intersection in Palo Alto California quietly waiting for the dove to appear. We were joined by a birding friend of mine from New Jersey, Scott Reynolds, who had also flown in the night before. Scott ended up birding with us the rest of the day. The dove arrived shortly after sunrise, conforming to a schedule it had established during the two weeks it has been in that area. It appeared in a redwood tree, sat for few minutes, then worked its way to a side yard that had seed on the ground. It hung round for about 5 minutes before moving on. A life bird for me!

We spent the rest of the day exploring several habitats in the area. Several local birders we met during the day came up huge for us. They told us about places to check out and in two cases they went out of their way and actually took us to some great places. One particular area was a marsh right near Google headquarters where a Black Rail was vocalizing during the day. We never saw the rail but it was great to hear it. We had an early night because we had a 6 am flight and needed to be up and out of the motel quite early. By 3:30 pm on Saturday we were in McAllen Texas after connecting in Dallas. We checked into our motel and prepared to spend the late afternoon hours seeking the Bat Falcon. In the process of getting settled in the motel, Chris discovered that he had left his computer at security at the San Francisco Airport. Not a good situation. We worked the problem and Chris filed a report with the TSA contractor in San Francisco. Conventional wisdom said that the laptop was gone. More on this later in this blog.

We drove to Santa Anna NWR where the falcon often shows up on the top of a pole early in the morning and late in the day. The key word on this is “often”. Not always, but “often”. This day was one of the days it did not show up. Along with about 40 other birders we stared at the top of the pole until darkness fell. Then back to the motel for some sleep and before the dawn on Sunday morning we were back staring at the top of pole along with many other birders. Well before the actual sunrise time, the falcon flew in and sat on the pole. We were treated to great views of it sitting, preening, and making short flights. After watching it for about an hour it was time for us to head to Brownsville for the Social Flycatcher. As it turned out the flycatcher presented a challenge. It was being seen at a resaca on a college campus. It was hard to see into the habitat and we were dependent on the bird making itself visible. Some days it has been visible and some days it has not. This day was a “not day”. We heard it vocalizing multiple times over several hours and finally we saw the bird at a great distance. Not very satisfying experience but it was acceptable. It was time to move on. From here on out we were casual birding. We had seen our targets. We chose to head to a platform that has been set up to help reestablish Aplomado Falcons in this area. We chose to take the “back way there”. This is a dirt road that is marginally passible when it is wet. We started driving down the road and quickly made the wise decision to proceed no further. We congratulated ourselves for making a wise decision. Quickly we turned around and took the normal way to the viewing area. It was misty and the hack tower is distant but we did see two falcons.

Heading back to Brownsville after seeing the falcons, we decided to check out a side road nearby where we had seen the falcons this past Spring. We got to the side road and turned up it and while it looked a bit dicey, we continued. And then about 400 yards up the road we hesitated and we were stuck. Stuck deep in Texas mud. Let’s be clear, we not talking a little stuck we are talking world class stuck. The mud was thick and stuck to everything. It clogged the treads of our front wheel drive vehicle and they became smooth tires. We tried everything to get out including scavenging some rugs along the road and putting them under the wheels. We did manage to back out about 10 feet but no further.
It was time to call AAA. We called and found out after a long conversation that since we were on a dirt road, AAA would not come and rescue us. Who knew! We were able to get the phone number of a 24 hour towing recovery service that specializes in extractions from sand and mud. We called them and while the price was a shock, we had no choice. They agreed to come out but it would be at least an hour or more before they were on site. Chris and I walked through the mud to the main road and waited. In a heavy mist that on occasion was soaking. In a tremendous example of human kindness and Texas hospitality, a driver saw us standing there and pulled over and offered us a ride. We declined because we had to wait for the tow truck. Put this person did give us two disposable ponchos for us to wear as we waited. A wonderful gesture that was much appreciated. We had gotten stuck about 4 pm and the tow truck arrived about 6:30 pm, well after dark. The driver was a great young man (Israel) who immediately told us not to worry. He would get us out. And he did! After about 40 minutes of getting his truck into position, cables attached to the wheels of our vehicle, he slid us back to the main road. Sometime around 8 pm we were back in the car headed to the motel. I am sure we left a major trail of mud on the highway. As we drove we could hear chunks of mud flying off the wheels and dropping off the undercarriage. The interior of the car was muddy and we were muddy but we were back driving on a hard road!

The next morning we were up early and driving our muddy vehicle we headed up river to Salineno. We spent time at the boat launch area and then about an hour at the feeding station. Nothing unusual there but a nice selection of birds locally common birds that we do not often see. While at the boat launch on the Rio Grande we used the river water to tackle some of the worst mud on the interior of the car. On the way back to McAllen we chanced upon a car wash that had free vacuums. We certainly took advantage of that. We sucked clumps of mud off the mats and the interior door panels. The greatest thing about the ride back was that Chris got an email that said that the company in San Francisco had probably found his laptop! After stopping at a couple of more birding spots we found a self-service car wash where we sprayed the car down. It was beginning to look presentable. Back at the motel we used the room trash cans and a sacrificial wash cloth and tackled the remaining mud in the inside. With some elbow grease and lots of clean water we got things cleaned up. We had a nice dinner that night with a Martin Dellwo. Marty is a close birding friend back in Philadelphia and he was in town to do some birding. The three of us had a great meal together.

On Tuesday morning the three of us did some birding but Chris and I were flying out at noon so we did not venture very far. We were on our plane at noon and were in Dallas by about 1:45 pm. At this point Chris and I went our separate ways, he to his home in Chapel Hill and me to my home in suburban Philadelphia.
It was a memorable trip. I got a life bird, Chris got 4 ABA life birds, Chris and his laptop got separated and should be reunited soon, and we had a stuck car adventure for the ages. Every trip has so many things that happen and this trip was no different. And as always it was great chasing with Chris.

Here are some bird pictures from the trip.
http://www.thefilemyrs.com/Birding/BirdPhotographs/2022Pictures/2022_02_Turtle_Dove/index.html

The Social Flycatcher was distant and I was only able to get a single documentation photo. The picture is poor and it could be argued that it is a Kiskadee and not a Social Flycatcher. But a person much closer to the bird observed it while it called. We saw the Bat Falcon on a gray morning and we did not wait around for more than an hour. We wanted to head to the flycatcher.

Steller's Sea-Eagle - Maine
Written January 1, 2022

On Thursday January 30, 2021, at the end of a blog about chasing the Bat Falcon and the Blue Mockingbird in Texas, I wrote “Good to be home. Now waiting on the Steller’s Sea-Eagle to reappear!!!!“. And the Sea-Eagle did reappear on that very day at Five Islands in Sagadahoc Co., Maine

Many of you know that there has been a Steller’s Sea-Eagle playing hide and seek with birders in North America. If you are not familiar with the situation, A nice overview is at https://youtu.be/2fX0W1he-ZI
There are some rare birds that can be considered to be “yearly” , some that can be considered “occasional” and some that can be considered once every ten years or so.
This is a once in a lifetime bird.

So the chase was on. The bird was seen again on Friday the 31st. It took some coordination and discussion but a plan eventually developed. Chris Hitt would drive to our place from North Carolina arriving about 12:30 am on Saturday the 1st after an 8 hour drive. Chris and I would then drive to Maine arriving at the Five Islands wharf about 7:45 on the morning of the 1st. There was a bit of rain and fog on the way north but we took our time.

At the wharf there were about 100 birders, fog, a mist, and no sign of the bird. We settled in for a day of waiting and watching. The number of birders grew steadily. While waiting for the bird to appear, it was great to connect with other birders we knew. About 9:00 am the word quickly circulated that a person was watching the bird through a scope. It was at a great distance. And there was a problem. To see the bird you had to stand in a small corner of the wharf. That viewable location could hold 4-5 people. There were many birders there so most people could not see the bird. A bit frustrating. Then it was called out that the bird had flown out of sight. Now no one could see it.
But…….
In about 2 minutes the bird reappeared and was flying in our general direction. It stopped and sat at the top of a tree on an island giving everyone good looks. A bit distance and with some fog but no one was complaining. It was a Steller’s Sea-Eagle. A once in a life time bird.
We all were happy but there was one small issue. Neil Hayward was still driving up from Boston. We hoped he would arrive before the bird flew off. After about 15 minutes the bird took off and moved to another island. Still no Neil. And then after an additional 15 minutes the bird took flight again and moved to another more distant island. We really thought that Neil would miss the bird. But he did show up in time and he got to see and enjoy the bird.
We hung around for about another 30 minutes renewing friendships with other crazy people.

The forecasted rain settled in and Chris and I did some local birding with minimal success. We are now in a motel in just south of New Hampshire. We will head home tomorrow.

We learned that after we left that the bird flew around to the back of an island, out of sight. And stayed there. A local lobster boat man stepped up and was taking small groups of birders on his boat to see the bird sitting in a tree behind the island. He was not charging any specific amount but was requesting “tips”.

Here are some pictures from the adventure