The Elusive Bird - April Fool am I

Perhaps you have viewed the movie "The Big Year" about a seemingly amateurish yet passionate birder and two other professional ranking birders one holding the title of most bird species seen in a single year in North America. The three travel across North America in a sighting  frenzy seeking to raise their bird viewed count and to seek that rarest of rare and most elusive bird whatever that might be and wherever the weather blown or just plain drifted off course bird might land.  

Perhaps you too, are an amateurish yet passionate birder always eager to leap out of a dentist chair, or dash out of a business meeting, or drop off your children at mom's house, leaving a trail of words messaging something about a once in a lifetime Pink-footed Goose spotted in Hathaway Point Boat Launch in Franklin County, Vermont- must get it [on my bird species life list].  

Not me. Yes I like watching and viewing and feeding birds. Yes I spend hours watching backyard birds - from inside, I might add, no travel time except to the kitchen window, and with warm coffee in hand as the snow or rain or wind bury, soak, and whip about those marching through thicket and brambles, marsh and bog, mountain top and farm field, seeking an animal though sometimes seen as arrogant, naive, gullible or gossipy as a goose, that is as nimble and skittish as a bee. 

What is that you say? You dropped everything, and I mean everything in a moments notice to travel nearly all day in despicable cold weather, and bumbled about in snow drifts and high winds dressed like the Michelin man in the hopes, hopes, rarest of hopes I believe you said, to view a one and half ounce winged creature who was last spotted 48 hours ago on a particular tree in a particular forest by a particular rock by someone who got only a possible identification of this shy bird. Here, have another cup of coffee. Your hands and nose are still white with frost; take a look at this bright red easy to see cardinal just outside the window. Just don't post it on E-bird, I am nearly out of donuts and coffee and maps.

Now for full disclosure, I do travel, usually in good weather, some distances to go birding in general. Though in my defense I must add, the local trips encompass as much nature observation in general as they do bird watching. Still, I do occasionally feel an itch, a wanting, a desire, a hope, that purrs, fleetingly announcing itself in my subconscious, and eventually simmering to a near boil - must view an _____ (bird species). 

Of late the must see bird that I keep making out of old rotted stumps, fence posts, or mangled grouping of branches high in a tree - is an owl. Now I am not fussy. I would be more than content with viewing a Barred Owl (most common these Vermont parts and out and about during the day) or a Great Horned Owl - the mammoth of owls, or sweet of sweets a Screech or Saw-whet owl. 

Not one to go to extremes to see a particular bird species, I however, did not leave an owl sighting purely to chance. Since black oil sunflower seed draws in song birds which in turn draw in predatory hawks and recently a shrike within six feet of the kitchen window, I imagined - feed them and they will come. Thereby the extra spattering of white proso millet (small seeds) upon the ground to feed not just the birds but the mice as well. You see, I suspect a nice fat juicy mouse might entice a hungry owl to travel great distances, through rough weather, at the drop of a feather, in order to show herself to me while I sip on my coffee in the kitchen! 

As I expected this might take a while (given that I needed to fatten up the mice), a few outside journeys seemed like a good idear, that is to hedge my bet on seeing an owl. With fellow bird expert in tow my "big year" began. 

Dropping everything and running off half baked is not my forte. It takes me half an hour to get ready to go to the post office. With much stressed patience from my guide, we were off to sure bet locations like Gage Road in Addison, Vermont and Country Club road (common sightings of short-eared owls) near the VT/NY bridge. 

I find that wind and forecasts are both like jello - difficult to get a handle on and quick to change shape and substance. Within one mile of our destined birding location, the sun, clouds, wind, and precipitation behaved according to our expectations. However upon entering the final stretch, less than half a mile dirt road, we entered tornado alley of Vermont. I am not sure if the wind was trying to A. blow us away so we would not see any owls, or B. penetrate my twenty eight layers of base layer, mid layer, top layer and imposingly wind proof attire. 

With great effort I managed to open the door against the northerly blowing wind, and quickly tethered myself to a fence post. This was going to be my big bird year (if sighting an owl counts) come hell or brimstone. After all I had given up a warm kitchen, hot coffee, and fresh blueberry muffins in order to come to this owlery - there was no going back now.

We waited, and huddled, and froze. We watched sparrows of every persuasion (Song, White-throated, Tree sparrows...), an occasional harrier gliding over the fields, a soaring Red-tailed Hawk, a delightful Rough-legged Hawk, and even three Bluebirds (we felt kinship as our cheeks were nearly as blue.)  Yet not one solitary owl did venture about, nor lift its head from the grassy plains or the bordering trees, nor from the barn leaning and shuddering in the wind.

Seek what you will, nature marches to her own tune. Observe her elegance, her beauty, her mystery as she displays in her own time and place. BEST DONE IN A WARM COMFY KITCHEN LOOKING OUT A WINDOW. Now let's go home, I have had enough big year birding, owls or no owls. 

My guide and I parted ways later that late winter day-me with more respect for bird chasers, my guide with less patience for my impatience. 

Fast forward to early spring. Life is good, the backyard birds display divergent behaviors and plumage enough to entertain me nearly to rapture some days. Yet lingering deep beneath my rational and conservative thinking mind is that reminder that I have not yet viewed an owl. Mice, whole families of mice, looking like overstuffed sausages on miniature feet no longer scramble about, but hardly move at all. What more could I put on the owl menu? The table was set, when would I see my first owl?

March 31, I lay sleeping dreaming of an elliptically shaped creature with a face like a satellite dish. Its large eyes rimmed with eyeglasses, peering over me watching, observing, analyzing my movements and behavior. The bird borders on homely to elegant, is well groomed, and remains serene irrespective of my tossing and turning. There seemed to be a spiritual essence or aurora surrounding the bird. The owl seemed intent on imparting some dear wisdom to me while at the same time sharpening its menacing claws underfoot. In my dream I began swinging live mice by the tails, over my head and watched in awe as those hand sized claws beneath a cloud of wing dived towards me. Finally I would see an owl, and up close, real real close. Then I awoke. It was just after two A.M. 

Shaking the jitters off, I quietly walked into the kitchen expecting to see an owl peering in the window - looking at ME. 

Noticing some aberration on a nearby tree limb, I retrieved a flashlight and shone a light out to - hope against hope - see a real owl.

And this is what I spotted on April 1 of my first "Big Year". 
  

Apparently owls are not only wise, they also have a sense of humor. Oh, and PS, the family of mice (on the menu) seems to have diminished considerably. I am still waiting for the tip.

If you see an owl - ANYWHERE IN VERMONT, where it is not savagery cold or hurricane windy, send me the tip - otherwise I will be in the kitchen watching the beloved songbirds, and perhaps swinging a live mouse by the tail over my head. Even elusive birds have to eat!

Every year here

is a big year.

Every bird

elusive or backyard resident

enriches my life.

 ~Bernie

For photos of real backyard birds, visit Bernie's other web site and select the Birds tab.
https://litterwithastorytotell.blogspot.com/2016/01/birds-in-south-burlington-vermont.html


Vermont Birds and Words