Dawn broke like an egg on the morning of the Ingloriuos Birders "Winter Meet". Six hours later there was only a couple of hours left until the scheduled meeting time of 2:30 pm. The anticipation I felt was minimal. As it turned out that imfamous day only two of us could make it. The others were busy with other things and Brian is too glorious to join us.... like a peacock in full display! Ryan was in no hurry and decided to push back the meet time to 3:30 so he could play a few more hands of poker. Maybe now you are starting to understand the "inglorious" part since we call ourselves birders and can't bother to actually go birding. Anyway we finally got on the road and the wind whipped the cold to our core. Actually now that I think back, it was sunny and surprisingly pleasant for what we had expected. None the less, I had my bottle of JD close at hand and rushed slowly out into the day binocular wet with anticipation. Hold on, I think my goetta is burning. Ok, I am back. Damn, goetta is good. Our first stop was Armleder with hopes of snipe, rare sparrows and golden nuggets in my head. We didn't see anything of interest and my demeanor didn't change at all. Oh, and I forgot; we stopped at Magrish River Preserve on the way and saw nothing there as well. The magic and memories of the day had begun with a fizzle of fun. Our last chance for a winter rarity and final stop was the private pit. Camp Dennison. Our chances were good; after all, 18 SMEW! had been reported here! We pulled into the trailhead and I couldn't help but think "this is it" I finally can have a drink of whiskey. As we walked to the bitter end of our allowed distance from the site we were greeted with the most amazing sight! SWANS! And Mute Swans at that! What a wonderful cap to a craptastic day! Now to go pratice my hip hop and pop moves.
List for the day
Song Sparrow
American Crow
Carolina Wren
Carolina Chickadee
American Robin
Northern Cardinal
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
White-throated Sparrow
American Tree Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Tufted Titmouse
Blue Jay
American Kestrel
Cooper's Hawk
American Coot
Bufflehead
Redhead
Canvasback
Ring-necked Duck
Mallard
Ruddy Duck
Canadian Gouse
Gadwall
Hooded Merganser
Mute Swan
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Ring-billed Gull
Red-bellied Woodpecker
White-breasted Nuthatch
Downy Woodpecker
Probable Merlin, Brian ; )
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Stories of Glory
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4 comments:
You can tell "The Great One," Brian, was not there. The list would have been Cooper's Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Merlin (for certain), Peregrine Falcon, Bat Falcon, Shit Falcon, any other Falcon.
Shut it Shoe! That's not a bad list overall. I didn't even go and saw a snipe though...flyover near a small wetland outside of georgetown. wish I could have been there. note for next time: top shelf whiskey brings top shelf birds, or at least tastes better if the day is craptastic! trying to teach Shoe that lesson, but he's slow.
I WANT MY SCAUPS!!!!! Malarky....
Ahhhh, Camp Dennison the ol' glory hole.....hey, wait a minute...
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