Birding

 

…is not without its share of adventure.

 

The day before the Big Day, Judy and I got called over to Charlie’s Pasture to see a rare Hermit Warbler,

 

 

 

…a bird we’d only seen once before ever.  It was a race against time to get to the bird before the incoming wall of weather hit.  With great luck, and the help of others, we got him just before the first lightning strike.  We high-tailed it for the car and took a blast of lightning right over our heads before we could get there.  Unhurt, we drove in a deluge we could barely see through, mostly rain some hail, never breaking 15mph, to get back to the bus.  When we got there we couldn’t get the five feet from the car to the coach for the rain coming down and the lake rising up.  (We’re okay, we’re parked on asphalt.)  We waited in the car for the thunderstorm to pass.

 

Later we find out that the slower to leave weren’t so lucky.  The lone person left got struck by lightning.  She survived, but spent the night in the hospital.  That was almost a “life” bird for her.

 

 

Wandering through the night, about 2am on the Big Day, Jon and I spooked a pack of javelina that bolted across the trail right in front of us.  Crashing through the underbrush, snorting and snarling; that got the juices flowing.  A short time later, on our bicycles, working our way back to the car in the dark, Jon, in the lead, almost got run over by a couple white-tailed deer blasting past.  Never know what a person will stir up out there in the night.

 

There always has to be a disclaimer attached to my Big Day report.  Jon spent weeks putting this together.  He did the best job ever scouting and staking out birds so we would know just where to go, and which way to look, to get as many birds as quickly as possible.  He spots and identifies birds so fast, I’m rarely the first to find one.  Me, I’m just the fortunate collateral damage.  My count by myself might have been half this number.  I get the benefit of his hard work for the small price of accompanying him.

 

Here is the list of our success with birds this Big Day: