Chasing Birds

Having a demanding job and a full family life does not allow me to do much bird chasing. Once in a great while, I do get a chance to go after some ‘special’ birds with mixed results. Here is a brief report on some of those outings.

2/1/09 - Ivory Gull - Plymouth, MA - NO

A few of the unlucky birders

The Ivory Gull has been on my radar ever since I heard other birders say that it was their most priced bird (see Long-billed Murrelet chase). It’s a bird that has seen a dramatic population decline (some 80% drop in Canada alone) due to loss of habitat (global warming) and contamination by DDT and PCB pollutants. It is believed that the Ivory Gull population is about 14,000 and very few of them venture south of their range (Summer Range - Arctic Canada, Greenland and Russia, Winter Range - Bering Sea and northward of Newfoundland as well as northern Eurasia)

A Gull but not an Ivory Gull

The first reports of Ivory Gull sightings came from Gloucester, Massachusetts on January 18th. The bird was seen again on the 19th as well as the 20th. Then amazingly enough another Ivory Gull sighting was reported on 1/20, this time at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Gloucester, Massachusetts bird was seen through the 22nd and the Plymouth bird was seen daily. I started thinking about making the 6 ½ hour trip up to Plymouth but could not get out of work and I had a number of family activities lined up for the weekend of 24th. The Plymouth bird was seen daily into the following week and I decided to bite the bullet and head up north on Saturday (1/31). The bird was seen on the previous day but when I arrived in Plymouth late on Saturday, I was told that it was not seen all day.

I stayed at a hotel a couple of blocks away from where the birds had been seen for 10 days straight and got to the spot early on Sunday morning (right at dawn).

A Ring-billed Gull taking over Ivory Gull duties

I bumped into a few other New Jersey birders including one that I see regularly in Cape May. He had gotten there on Friday and had seen the bird but stayed the weekend hoping to get one more look. As the time went by and the bird did not appear I started crying the blues to a guy next to me on how I took a long trip up there in vain. He looked at me and said that he was from Virginia and had come up on Saturday after driving for 11 hours straight. I then ran into a guy who took a plane from Texas to see the bird but was also a day late. At around 10:00am it became apparent to most of us that the bird had moved on so one by one we started saying our goodbyes and headed home. Not the outcome I was looking for but this was a trip I had to make.

The Journey

7/21/07 - Western-Reef Heron - New York City, NY - YES

A Western-Reef Heron first appeared in Maine in September of 2006 causing a lot of excitement and controversy. Where did it come from? Was it an escapee? Many birders made the trek to see the bird but I was not one of them. When another Western-Reef Heron appeared a year later I was determined I would go after it. The bird was seen a lot closer to home this time (New York) and as fate would have it, I was due to head up to the area for family reasons.

So off I went on September 22nd and after a 2 ½ hour drive I got to near the area where the bird was seen for the last couple of days. It took me around 45 minutes looking for ways to get to the water (fenced soccer fields) but I was lucky enough to see another birder from afar and I quickly caught up to him and found the viewing spot within a few minutes after that. There were a hand full of birders there said that the bird was on the other side of the channel hiding behind a decaying barge. It only showed briefly as we waited for close to 4 hours. Many folks were content with the few glimpses that they got and moved on. I was getting ready to leave myself but the bird suddenly took off and flew very close to our area before it disappear. Needless to say I was not ready for this but I was able to get the kens off the tripod in time to take a couple of shots.

I headed back home knowing that I had captured a very rare visitor. My friend Nikolas Haas posted a couple of emails on the local birding blogs on the bird’s taxonomy and possible origin. Here are some excerpts:
The Western (Atlantic) form of Western Reef Heron Egretta [garzetta] garzetta gularis seems to be a southern SUBSPECIES of LITTLE EGRET Egretta [garzetta] garzetta. In contrast, the Eastern (Indian Ocean) form of Western Reef Heron Egretta schistacea (formerly Egretta gularis schistacea) seems neither closely related to Little Egret nor to 'Western' Western Reef Heron (better 'Southern' Little Egret), but seeems to be a different species and NOT even a member of the superspecies Egretta [garzetta]!

More details of the Western Reef Heron taxonomy: gularis (Bosc, 1792), breeds at the West African coast, schistacea (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1828) breeds at the Indian Ocean coast, dimorpha (Hartert 1914) breeds on islands in the Indian Ocean (CRAMP & SIMMONS 1977; HANCOCK & KUSHLAN 1984; DEL HOYO et al. 1992).

Western-Reef Heron photos

1/21/07 - Long-billed Murrelet - Sandy Hook, NJ - NO

This Siberian visitor was initially discovered on Thursday morning (1/18) at Sandy Hook (Northern New Jersey). It was relocated on Friday afternoon by a number of birders. No sightings on Saturday but I decided to get to Sandy Hook on Sunday morning hoping it would somehow reappear. Got up early in the morning and after a 90 minute drive I arrived at Sandy Hook. I figured there would be many birders looking for the bird so instead of looking for the bird, I looked for the birders. There were a couple of groups of 30+ birders and I spent time with both. Temperature was in single digits and the wind made it feel even colder. I waited for more than 4 hours but he bird was never seen.

Many of the birders were sharing stories about other birds they have chased in the past. One conversation stayed with me as two birders were remarking on how they would have gotten out of work on Thursday if the bird seen was something extraordinary like an Ivory Gull. I thought to myself that they were dreaming if they thought that they would see an Ivory Gull in North Eastern US. I was proven wrong a couple of years later….