Sooooo....let me tell you about my day!!!
It started in Duluth, Minnesota on Friday at 7:30 am. We showered, ate and headed south to St. Paul Minneapolis birding along the way and picking up Snow Buntings at Sandstone National Wildlife Refuge along with four Rough-legged Hawks.
A nice ending for a short trip to the frozen north which included Great Gray Owls, Northern Hawk Owls and a first for us and the Rice Lake Wildlife Management Area a cute little Boreal Owl.
Not a bad trip and we left Minnesota a few ticks to the good and a little wiser about the ways of the north.
It all started to go down hill upon our arrivial at Chicago Midway Airport. We had a Mid-Winter count scheduled to start the next morning at 7:00 am and guess what our flight was delayed. We arrived back at our home base at 4:30 am dead beat and worn out. Two hours, or was it one, of sleep and we were back at it again.
Mid-Winter Counts in Frederick County, Maryland are not exactly what one calls exciting. Unless your idea of fun is counting thousands of Starlings, thousands of Crows and House Sparrows with a few good winter birds thrown in. But there we were ready to tuff it out.
After eight hours of driving and counting crow after crow after crow after....hey what is that one.
I told Lyn, my life birding buddy, to check out the Killdeer in the snow melt to the right hand side of our truck. I watch for cars while she slowly announces that it is not a Killdeer, but a Northern Lapwing..."It's to big for a Longspur" says I.
"Your right" says she. "It is to big for a Longspur. It's a Lapwing."
I start to drive off. Then I stop. "It's a Kestrel taking a bath in the snowmelt" says I.
"No" says she, "It's a Lapwing. Look at the crest"
I finally raise my binos up to my bleary sleep deprived eyes to gaze at one of the most beautiful birds to visit our shores from afar. We have seen this bird before where it is very common in winter in Ireland. We have also seen the bird in breeding plumage and in breeding habitat on Raflin Island in Northern Ireland in spring, but never in the States.
In fact until Lyn and I set our eyes on this bird it has never been recorded in the State of Maryland and only sparringly reported across the nation.
So now you see our problem. No camera (we still had not unpacked from Minnesota) no proof. The bird does not exist in the eyes of everyone else including that dreaded body, The Records Committee.
So now it is Saturday night. I report the bird and am met with well let's just say that they chalked the bird up to Sleep Deprivation. Now I can't sleep again as the list chaser will surely be out in force on Sunday am and my stomach is a complete knot.
Saturady night comes and goes...no sleep. Sunday 2:30 am still no sleep. What if the bird is not there the next morn. Will we be laughed out of the state.
3:00 am ...no sleep 4:30 am....no sleep
7:30 am...make coffee...now I have been awake for 48 hours straight.
Go birding with Lyn...White-throats...Bluebirds....Sharp-shin Hawk shows up and makes me forget at least for a moment the giant knot that has developed in my stomach.
Check my e-mails. I see that the sighting has been posted and sent out. Now the bird just needs to be there.
9:30 am Can't wait any longer. I call Gary Smyle...if anyone will dog this bird it's Gary. Sure enough I get him on his cell.
"No bird. Just a Killdeer"
Oh no any bird except a Killdeer. How many birders are there now questioning the sighting. "It was only a Killdeer that the sleep deprived idoit strung along for a Lapwing."
I do laundry..well I put the clothes in the machine...did I put in detergent...I can't remember...I put more in.
Noon comes and goes 53 hours without sleep.
4:30 comes nothing from no one. Can't stand it anymore. Lyn wants to go look for Owls. Drive to Washington County. Even the owls won't talk to me. I get skunked.
Drive back.
57 hours without sleep and I am still as sharp as well a block of hardened concrete.
Get back.
Call from Gary.........He has pictures.
It's now 10:30 pm. I have been up for 63 hours straight.
The only thing that I can say is " I hope I don't have to go throught this again or get another bird like this one...welll until I get at least 8 hours sleep.
Good Birding and thanks to all the people who showed up today to see the Confirmed First State Sighting of a rather lost Northern Lapwing.
I am going to get some sleep now.
For Pictures please go to MOS Website Gallery at:
www.mdbirds.org/birds/gallery/lapwing.html
Posted by Yungas Manakin at February 14, 2005 03:37 AM