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After an intense 12 hour day of competitive birding, (not to mention several hours of driving/flying the day before) you'd think that most people would look forward to sleeping in on a Sunday. Well not the Bloggerhead Kingbirds! Nope, now way, uh-uh! After the reception Saturday night we headed to a restaurant to order a few beers to celebrate the day, and figure out what we wanted to do on Sunday. There were a few birds we missed during the competition, and towards the latter part of the day, we really didn't have time to stop and take photos of anything, so the plan was to remedy both those situations.
Sunday morning at 6:30 found us together again and heading north to Plum Island in search of Rough-legged Hawk, Northern Shrike and Snowy Owl. Let me tell you folks, it was cold. I mean really cold. Really bitterly cold. The hair on my face was cracking within moments of stepping out of the car. But we had our targets, and within a few minutes of being on the refuge, a potential Snowy Owl was spotted far out on the marsh. The cold was forgotten as we grabbed scopes and confirmed the id. Unfortunately, distance and shimmer prevented any photography of this individual, on this day. There was enough detail visible for me to know that it was he same immature bird that I has seen just a few days earlier a bit closer:
(We did not see the bird this well on Sunday)We then continued on towards Salisbury, and to the state reservation and campground where the White-winged Crossbill show has been fantastic this year, and where the guys wanted to spend a little bit of time getting some photos. (And I can't blame them - the trees the birds visit are quite low and the birds are often eye-level with great light for photography.) Quintus was asking about the frequency of Long-eared Owls here (and I was mentioning that they are occasionally seen, but the one seen this year flushed and was not found again) when we came upon two photographer with their set-up low to the ground and point up into a tree. It was quickly clear that they were not photographing crossbills - there was not activity near the top of the tree, and the angle simply wasn't right. Within a few moments, we were all getting unobstructed looks at a beautiful Long-eared Owl that was roosting comfortably in one of the pines. This one had chosen his spot very well - a very dense coverage at eye level, protecting him from the wind and barely visible unless looking up into the tree.
I was glad to see that both the photographers, my team, and others that showed up, all seemed pretty respectful of the bird - keeping their distance, getting their looks photos and (eventually for some)moving on. As far as I know the bird remained there the rest of the day, which is rarely the case when one is found in the pines of the campground - often the reports are that one was seen, and within an hour it flew for deeper cover elsewhere. We then moved on to watch and photograph the crossbills - every second of which was worth it.
The birds were pretty cooperative - I know I got some more good photos, Nate has already posted a few, and Corey was giggling like a little girl when he got back into the car and reviewing his pics. (If you've met Corey, you understand was a disturbing mental picture that can be.) And Quintus? Well, he was so happy he decided to dive into the snow - those crazy South Africans.
He does look happy though, doesn't he?Next we headed the feeders where the Yellow-headed Blackbird and Dickcissel refused to show themselves for us during the competition. No-show on the blackbird but the Dickcissel quickly showed himself, teasing us with how easy he was to spot when he was around - even among the dozens to hundreds of House Sparrows.
Seeing how well we were doing for time, we decided that we'd head back to Gloucester to try one more pass at finding King Eider and Black-headed Gull, but we had to leave those on the table for this time around. It's ok, just another reason for everybody to come back - we'll get them next year. We headed back to the hotel, returned the rental, and packed up the cars. It wasn't time to say good-bye yet though. The was one big bird we still had to try for. The Ivory Gull in Plymouth had been seen reliably for over a week now, and feeling confident that we would see it, we caravaned down to Plymouth arriving at about 1:30 - precisely two hours after the gull was last seen flying away. We gave it some time, scanned every bird within sight, but finally had to throw in the towel on this bird too. We retired to the restaurant next to where the gull had been seen (just in case it came back, we got window seats so we could bolt outside if needed) to warm up with bowls of some of the thickest clam chowder I've ever had, and the last beer we'd share on the trip. We talked future trips we have coming up, ones we've had in the past, and toasted our luck (both good and bad) and what fun we'd had all weekend.
I cannot say how glad I was that these guys were able to make it up there this weekend. Win or lose, just competing with these guys was great. But for me even just hanging out, having a beer, joking, laughing, chatting, etc with these kindred souls made this an incredible memorable weekend, and I look forward to when we can do it again. Each and every one is invited back again any time they want - and I sincerely look forward to the day that they accept that invitation.
Once again, I encourage you to visit the blogs of the other guys. They've all been posting their takes on the weekend with their own style of writing and sense of humor, and really together helps to paint a much more three-dimensional picture of the weekend!
Patrick at the Hawk Owl's Nest
Corey at 10,000 Birds
Quintus at the Owl Box Blog
Nathan at The Drinking Bird
