Journal of a Sabbatical

May 7, 2000

something blue

Today's Bird Sightings:
Plum Island
2 gadwalls
1 willet
5 eastern kingbirds
10 redwing blackbirds
4 starlings
4 Canada geese
1 great egret
3 glossy ibises
2 northern shovelers
1 gray catbird
2 mallards
1 American goldfinch
infinite purple martins & house sparrows

Today's Reading: Uttermost Part of the Earth by E. Lucas Bridges

Today's Starting Pitcher:
Jeff Fassero

Something blue flew across the road and disappeared between the dunes seconds after I flashed my duck stamp at the gatehouse and passed parking lot 1. It was slate blue with a small head, no white whatsoever on wings, neck pulled in like a great blue heron, but WAY too small to be a great blue heron. I couldn't get the binoculars on it fast enough and keep one hand on the steering wheel. My brain kept trying to sort it out, map it onto some bird I knew. A nagging feeling that it was a little blue heron bugged me for the rest of the afternoon. I even went back to that spot several times looking for it with no luck.

So besides that elusive something blue I saw the first kingbirds of the season and the first willet too. I saw three glossy ibises fly by while I was looking at a great egret - to my surprise they circled back and landed near the egret for an extra good look. They were not my first of the season, but they are one of my favorites to see because I love the color - that dark purplish green - and their curved beaks. Also saw two male northern shovelers. The only yellow thing I saw was a goldfinch. No exotic warblers or anything.

Today is hot hot hot. My house is unbearably hot because the condo maintenance folks have not taken the winter covers off the air conditioners yet. BusyBody turned on her a/c not realizing this, and it made a horrendous noise heard throughout the building. So I decided to drive over to Rowley for a look at that reeve that's been reported for the past few days. Well, I found the spot and there were indeed some different looking shorebirds there, but they were too far away to get a positive identification with binoculars. And since I still have no scope, despite my resolve to buy a new one by April 1, I got frustrated. Another birder was walking back to his SUV to get his scope and I asked if he'd seen the reeve. "You'll need a scope," he replied. I got the distinct impression that my "woe is me, my scope was stolen" speech would not result in a peek through this guy's scope.

So I left and went to Plum Island even though I knew there would be lots of cars on the refuge and maybe the parking lots would be full. The lots weren't full, but the traffic was heavy and not conducive to drive-by birding. (That's where I only count the birds I can see from the air-conditioned comfort of the car - or in winter the heated and dry comfort of the car. The rules are simple: only birds visible from the road count; you can stop the car and even get out, but no walking on trails or beach. I made it up one winter Wednesday afternoon as a fun game for bad weather.)

That's how I came to be obsessing about that something blue that got away instead of adding a reeve to my life list and two Wilson's phalaropes to the year list. Wonder whether I'll dream of reeves and phalaropes tonight or blue things...