Everything has to go just right

For a good Big Day, there has to be a solid plan; a schedule of where to be when. The plan has to take the birders to where the birds are at the right time of day (or night) for each. The good plan has to be well executed. No getting distracted by the sights, sounds, surroundings. Get each bird at each location and move on. The birders have to have the skills to identify the birds they’re after by whatever means necessary. Sometimes it’s sight, birding by sight, but that’s not the only sense allowed. Sometimes sound, habit, and habitat come into play to help with the I.D. Lucky for me, Jon did the plan and has the skills to execute it. I got to go along.

The weather has to be right as well. The best laid plans fall flat if there is a 30mph tailwind and all the migrants fly right on by. That’s how most of the migration has gone so far. Little birds going right on by overhead. They just flew 600 miles across the gulf and they’re still not tired enough to have to land.

But a couple weeks ago, conditions were forecast to be perfect, so that’s the day we went for it. We started at 2am. The wind was calm and we could hear the calls and clucks we needed. We got Clapper Rail, Virginia Rail, and Sora calling in the dark at the Birding Center in Port Aransas. We moved west to stops at Tule Lake, Hazel Bazemore, and outside Orange Grove. Eastern Screech Owls, Great Horned Owls, and Barn Owls. After the moon went down we were standing in the pitch black making Barn Owl growls when one almost took my head off. He didn’t actually hit me, but it was exciting when he went past!

The sun came up. Now we could get birds by sight. By 9am we had a hundred. We got the Monk Parakeets on our trip back through Orange Grove. A front passed through. The wind switched around to the north. A breeze picked up. Perfect to knock down some migrants. We got Upland Sandpipers in Sandia. We got Swainson’s Hawk at the Sod Farm. Great Kiskadees at Hazel Bazemore, Least Grebes and a Green Kingfisher at Pollywog Ponds, and more shorebirds at Tule Lake. Great Crested Flycatcher at Rose Hill. Chuck-will’s Widows and Chimney Swifts at Blucher. More shorebirds at Hans Suter. Got a Whimbrel at Texas A&M, and Eared Grebes in breeding plumage at Packery Channel. There were Nighthawks and Blue-winged Warblers at Paradise Pond. We got the Buff-bellied Hummingbird in Jon’s parents’ backyard in Rockport, continued north and ended up the day with a King Rail in the Guadalupe River Delta north of Tivoli.

It all came together. Our previous record from 2009: 191 birds. Jon went out on Big Days twice in 2010 and got 192, then 193 birds, but I didn’t go. This year, in 2011, 207 birds! A most excellent big day.