Wednesday, February 14, 2018, @35,000 feet:
I am on my way to New Brunswick. There is a, possibly, once in a lifetime Mistle Thrush visiting a home in a small town outside of Moncton, waiting to fly into my Life List. My tradition on February 14 nearly every year since I started birding has been to drive up to Algonquin Park, but this year I am trying to visit Provences and States I have never been to and to add birds to my Life List, rather than just seeing as many birds as possible this year. The Mistle Thrush has been seen for a few weeks now and I was running out of time to get to Moncton before leaving for Florida and a month in the sun. And, frankly, the flight to Moncton is not much longer than driving to Algonquin Park. I also waited for the weather to be above freezing with little to no chance of snow.
The Mistle Thrush in question, has taken an even longer journey to get to Miramichi, NB. This native of Europe and Asia took a wrong turn at some point and flew hundreds of miles off course to end up at the feeders of a couple who, luckily, are birders and recognized that they were looking at was no regular visitor. After being unable to find it in any Birds of North America field guide, they posted photos for experts to study and now birders from the US and Canada are, pardon the pun, flocking to their neighborhood seeking a Lifer that is providing quite the show.
That’s it for now. We are preparing to land and, as we do, I wonder if I am not the only one on this plane flying hundreds of miles to see a single bird...
Wednesday, February 14, 2018, Miramachi, New Brunswick:
After an on-time arrival at the Moncton Airport I am leaving late, since I somehow forgot to finish off my Enterprise car rental reservation and they had no cars available when I arrived at the counter. Once again, luck was on my side as Avis/Hertz did have one car, just returned from an oil change, so I am heading out about half hour later than I had hoped.
After a nearly 2 hour drive I finally arrived in Miramachi and met a retired couple who drove all the way from Michigan and had spent the last 4 hours watching the Mistle Thrush. I had arrived at my GPS coordinates about 10 minutes earlier and was watching some bird feeders at the house of Peter and Deana Gadd, who had first discovered the bird, before realizing that the thrush in question had moved on to another street. Before I could even get back in the car, another car drove by, asked if I was looking for the bird,(no need to ask which bird), and he offered to have me follow him around the corner to MacMillan Drive where the bird had been hanging out the last few weeks, of it’s now 68 day stay.
That’s where I met the couple, who had seen it about 30 minutes earlier. Missed it by that much. They hung around another 15 minutes or so, but the bird didn’t show up again, so they headed off to their hotel for the night, suggesting they’d be back in the morning for one last look and some photos. I figured I could hang around until sunset, as it was nice enough out, and I had nowhere else to be. I do hope it shows up tomorrow, but if the only look I get of the Mistle Thrush was the one I just had, then I will go home happy, with species 1010 for my Life List. I was sitting in the car, warming up, when I bird flew in from left to right and landed in a bare tree. I jumped out of the car, got my binoculars on the bird, and low and behold, I saw the pale, speckled breast and knew I had the Mistle Thrush. It only stayed around 30 seconds before retiring for the night, and I wasn’t quick enough with the camera.
A short while later another car pulled up and it was Peter Gadd his own self, checking on any last remaining birders in his neighborhood. We had a nice chat about how he discovered the bird, and sent photos to experts before discovering what a rare bird he had on hand. Likely the rarest bird in North America right now, the Mistle Thrush is common in Europe and Asia, but not so much on this side of the pond. A storm may have sent it west over the ocean, where it may have stopped in Iceland or Greenland along the way, before ending up on Manny Drive in Marimachi, over 2 months ago. That is a accidental detour of over 2500 miles.
I signed Peter’s guest book and he gave me tips on seeing the bird tomorrow, which was not to come too early, as it hasn’t been seen before 11am the last few days. I hung around a little longer, and as the sun dipped below the horizon, headed off to my hotel for a well deserved rest and will go try for longer looks and photographs in the morning. But I did accomplish two of my 2018 goal, the first being to add more Lifers, and the second to travel to states and Provences I have not had the pleasure of birding in. Littlerally and figuratively, killing two birds with one, ahm, trip.
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