Out of the Box!

Well! There you go again!

What makes two seemingly normal people just up and sell everything they own and decide to go off birding for the rest of their life?

I'm not quite sure , but I intend to spend the rest of my life finding out. You are invited along. Maybe we will discover together why this seemingly innocuous hobby could turn into a dark force which drives them from warm hearth and safe harbors to bug infested swamps and wind driven paramo.

Meet the people that they meet along the way also as they travel in search of the next delicious tick. Also you get to travel with them and see wonderous new and exotic lands such as Duluth, Minnesota and maybe meet and greet a real Duluthian of the frozen north.

If you are not, or do not know a birder peek inside the strange and bizarre world of these obviously deranged people as they span the globe in search of their feathered avian prey. Also meet other birders who together irregardless of race, creed or nationality form that 1% of society who are constantly " Out of the Box!"

Our first stop on the tour was Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in search of Short-eared Owls. A tip from Gary Smyle, a dedicated member of the Maryland Ornithology Society, sent our intrepid birders off to bird this National Battlefield and surrounding areas.

This area is an IBA or Important Bird Area, an area deemed of sufficient importance to either breeding, migranting or over wintering birds. Upon reaching this area it became immediately clear that this habitat of farm lands and fields with wonderful wooded fence rows and stream edges is important winter raptor habitat.

Reaching the area where the Short-eared Owls(Asio f. flammeus) were located we were able to quickly spot the owls. (total of 12 seen, but a high count of 44 in the evening has been reported) Then we were given the opportunity to not only observe a hunting Short-eared owl on the wing, but a Northern Harrier(Circus cyaneus hudsonius) on the wing in the same field for comparison views of these two convergent evolutionary predators. Birding 101 does not get any better than this.

Other raptors seen were many, many, many Red-tailed Hawks in all stages of plumages. Even an Albino Red-tail Hawk(I believe that the bulk if not all were Buteo jamaicensis borealis) which briefly made us think " Snowy Owl", alas it was not to be, but still a good look.

Three Rough-legged Hawks (Buteo lagopus sanctijohannis) were spotted also with two being seen together over the field where Picketts Charge culminated the third day of fighting in the bitterly divisive War between the States.

American Kestrel(Falco s. sparverius) were also common along power and telephone lines.

All in all not a bad day.

If I failed to mention it at the begining one of our goals is to try and see 2000 species for the year. In 2003 we were able to see over 1000 species for the year and feel that maybe this year is our year to top 2000. We shall see....

And as that crafty Doylian figure Sherlock Holmes put it " The game is afoot..."

Posted by Yungas Manakin at February 7, 2005 03:54 AM