Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Jinx Me No More

Tuesday, June 13, 2006
17 comments

For the better part of the past 25 years of bird watching, I have had one pretty common eastern wood warbler that has eluded me: the Connecticut warbler. I've been on the wrong side of the bush from one or more during fall migration at Higbee's Beach in Cape May, NJ. I've rushed to spring reports of these birds in Columbus, Ohio's Greenlawn Cemetery. I've driven the back roads of the North Woods looking and listening in vain.

It had become a joke among my birding pals here in Ohio, especially within the friendly confines of The Ohio Ornithological Society. Jim McCormac, one of Ohio's best, most avid birders has not done a newspaper interview in the past five years where he failed to point out that "one of my very accomplished birding friends--the editor of a major birding magazine--has not seen a certain bird, the Connecticut warbler." He even included this in his board member bio for the OOS website. I have met dozens of beginning birders who have seen the Connecticut warbler. Julie has seen or heard several on our farm here in SE Ohio! But not me. The Connecticut warbler is MY JINX BIRD.

Well those days are OVER, baby!

On Monday morning, June 12, at about 5:50 am, eight miles north of Roseau, MN, I saw my jinx bird and officially broke the jinx.

This sighting came at the end of five days at the Potholes & Prairie Birding Festival in Jamestown, ND. And when I found I could not fly out of Fargo, ND on Sunday (nothing affordable available) I picked a Monday afternoon flight and promptly set my sights on breaking this birding curse. I contacted my pal Dave Lambeth, ace birder of Grand Forks, ND and he made some inquiries on my behalf. All the info I needed came in an e-mail from a MN birder named Peder. Check Highway 310 about 8 to 10 miles north of Roseau before 8 am when the bird quit singing.

Well I got to Roseau and to the magical Hwy 310 late in the afternoon of Sunday, June 11 and began looking in all the suggested spots. Lots of great birds in this pine-spruce bog habitat: purple finches, least flycatchers, many wood warblers, but no sign of my jinx bird (other life bird possibilities for me here included great gray owl, spruce grouse, northern three-toed woodpecker and American black-backed woodpecker). I drove my pimped-out rental car to the end of the road, just south of the border crossing into Manitoba. A dirt road lead off to the right, past a sign for a gun club. There were no shots echoing from the club, and no No Trespassing sign (something I always obey when birding) so I drove in.

One way to tell you are in the Great North is when you see a sign like this.

Oh it was birdy off the highway, and I went all the way to the rifle range about 100 yards up the road. I got out of the car, climbed a small hill where the shooting benches were and realized I was looking at a fabulous patch of habitat for a great gray owl to hunt. Just then a large bird took off from a distant perch, my heart leapt--it was a red-tailed hawk. The day shift, hunting the meadow. Moments later I heard a sharp, staccato warbler song and my pulse raced--was it a Connecticut? No, my rational mind took over--it was a mourning warbler, and I've known that song since my early birding days in the West Virginia highlands.

The owl bog on the rifle range, pre-owl sighting.

Thoroughly frustrated with my own "buck fever" for new life birds, I decided to head south to Beltrami State Forest for the remaining three hours of daylight, with a plan to return to this meadow at dusk. I spent a lovely three hours in Beltrami and saw loads of great things (gray jay, veery, black-throated green warbler, white-throated and Lincoln's sparrows, sandhill crane short-eared owl), but none of my quest birds.

Driving back up the gun club road as the sun was setting I noticed some pink-tinged clouds to the north, like a celestial beacon calling me to visit Manitoba, if only to say I'd been there. I made a deal with myself that if I did not see the great gray after scanning the meadow, I'd cross the border and then come back. The fact is, I'd already been there. Earlier in the day I blundered across the border in the middle of the woods, while chasing down a weird flycatcher call note (turned out to be a yellow-bellied).
Pink sunset clouds beckoned to me from Manitoba.

I climbed back up the shooting bench hill on the rifle range and a bit of motion in a distant tree caught my eye. A large raptor had just flown up to a perch and was struggling to get its footing. I looked with my 10x binocs and could see that it was huge and gray, but the dim light and the distance kept me from an identification. I sprinted to the car for my scope, cursed the engineer who designed the locks that LOCK when the car is put in drive but don't UNLOCK when the car is put back into park! Fumbled for my keys, precious seconds ticking away.....

Grabbed the scope, twisted my ankle sprinting back up the hill, and cursing the pain and the lock engineer, set up the scope on a GREAT GRAY OWL LEAVING THE PERCH! I mumble the species' name over and over something like this: that's a *&$#^@ great gray owl! that's a *&$#^@ great gray owl! that's a *&$#^@ great gray owl! Then I danced a pathetic sort of jig on my one good leg. Oh the joy, But the bird was gone, into the woods at the end of a meadow, perhaps 500 yards away. I knew I had to go after it. This was a look but not a LOOK. Plus my digiscoping trigger finger started itching....

Down a rutted ATV path I went, half limping, half running. This ankle had been bothering me since a Saturday field trip for the OOS in late April, and so far no one has been able to tell me what's wrong. It's an annoyance rather than debilitating so I was not going to let it prevent me from trying to see this bird of a lifetime. One additional problem...the path went through the scrubby woods, and there was no wind in there--what was there was an army of mosquitoes like I have never encountered. Of course I had no bug spray. Again an annoyance, not reason enough to quit on this owl. Four hundred and fifty yards later, the owl flew past me heading in the opposite direction. I lost sight of it for the next 10 minutes, giving the encroaching night just enough time to finish off the remaining daylight, rendering digiscoping a nearly moot exercise.
My first shot of a great gray owl. The next 10 images looked just like this. Low light does not love digiscoping.

Then I saw the owl. Perched not 50 feet from my parked car. Back over to the path, which offered me a defilade approach--I could get closer to the bird without it seeing me. Back down the path I went, huffing, puffing, saying my transcendental meditation mantra to keep myself calm. And finally, at the edge of the path, I emerged and there was my bird, looking me dead in the eye from 50 yards away. I set up the scope and took some hopeless digiscoped shots. I gazed at the bird, its eyes looking right through me. It was not interested in me, it was interested in food for nestlings. Several hunting plunges yielded nothing, so the great gray flew to the edge of the woods, and I snapped a few more images. My God what a creature! And I'd found it myself.

Shot on "night" with no flash. There's no doubt about this bird's identity.

And then the bird was gone and no amount of scanning in the foreclosing dusk could reconjure it. I sighed a satisfied sigh, slapped aimlessly at my neckful of mosquitoes, and decided to drink a toast to this owl. I raised a bottle of beer in its honor, then headed for my hotel, satisfied that the day was mine.

A toast to a great life bird. Too bad it was not Canadian beer.

It gets dark late and gets light early in the Great North. I was out of the hotel by 4:45 heading up Hwy 310. At the 8-mile marker I heard my bird, a male Connecticut warbler in full voice. I stopped, I scanned, I slapped at more mosquitoes. The bird sang on, unseen. Peder, the helpful MN birder had said "the bird will most likely be perched 20 feet up in a jack pine right next to the trunk." If this bird was singing from where he sounded like he was singing, he must've been dressed in his pine-cone costume from last Halloween. I could not find him.

So I decided to go after him. Problem was there was an eight-foot wide creek with very muddy banks between us. I found the narrowest point and made a leap, remembering in mid-air my bad right ankle. What fools we birders be. I am still shocked that my scream of pain did not scare away every bird within a mile. But I was across and I pulled my boots out of the sucking mud and scrambled up the bank. The ground between me and my singing jinxster was bog at its finest. Treacherous footing, many downed trees, deep sinkholes, and isolated islands of ferns and grasses. Slowly I made my way toward the loud, persistent singer and as I did I realized that the birds I thought were just across the creek were actually singing really loudly from back in the woods about 50 yards.

Yet I was not to be denied. I got to where the bird seemed to be almost overhead and scanned intently while I caught my breath. A tick crawled across my neck, shooing mosquitoes from their intense work. I let them have their way with me. This was a crucial moment in my bird watching life. And there he was. Or at least there his beautiful back end was. The first part of the Connecticut warbler to help me break this jinx was his, well, ass. I could not see the head and this bird wears all its field marks on its head.
When I finally got to see the eyering and hood, I knew the jinx was up.

So I had to move. And that was hard. I did not want to lose the bird, spook him, and be left with only the ass of a Connecticut warbler for my life list. That would hardly lift the jinx. I could only imagine what Jim McCormac would say: "Yeah Bill is a birding pervert, he only looks at the asses of life birds...." No that would never do.

And so I tiptoed through the boggy woods, around to the left, where the angle and light would be in my favor. I refound the perch and the bird was GONE! I said a bad word and then another. Just then a movement caught my eye and there was my guy, just feet away. And the eeriest feeling came over me: He's come to say hello!
This Connecticut's robust song is perfectly designed to carry a long way in the thick pines of a northern bog.

I was overcome with joy as I watched this hooded sprite cavort atop the moss-covered logs. His eyering a perfect white circle, his huge (for a warbler) proportions perfectly Oporornis. Thank you, my tiny friend! He flew halfway back up a tree and perched for ten (10!) minutes singing and looking at me. I snapped off some pretty poor digis and said my second prayer of thanks to the birding gods in the past 24 hours. Being before 6 am, I did not toast this lifer with another beer, though the thought did cross my mind.
Ahhh! Number 623 on my North American life list, but who's counting?

It was a moment to savor. I only wish I could've shared it with Julie, Jim, Dave, Tim, Patti, and so many other great bird watching companions.

Two things happened to me on the way back out of the bog. I fell and twisted my right ankle between to fallen trees that were buried under thick grass. And for a few minutes I thought I'd have to shout for help, though there would be no traffic on the road for two more hours, when the border opened at 8 am. I even checked my cellphone in case I needed to call someone--no reception. After about 15 minutes, the pain and throbbing subsided and I started moving slowly toward the creek. Getting back across proved more of a chore. Because I could neither push off nor land with my right ankle, I had to build a bridge of stepping stones across. For stones I used pieces of logs. For balance I used my tripod and scope. I made it, only sinking once up to my shins in the mud. On the other side, I made it to the car and sat for a spell.

Necessity is the mother of invention. My bridge back across the boggy creek.

For the first time in 25 years I was without a jinx bird. It felt weird.

17 comments:

On June 14, 2006 at 6:29 AM Jim McCormac said...

Awesome! A major congrats, Dude, and you even got to photograph that Connecticut! I'll have to find a new topic for BT3 harrrassment, but that won't be hard... Now, it'll be interesting to see how many Connecticuts you see this fall in migration....

On June 14, 2006 at 8:40 AM Bill of the Birds said...

Thanks Jimbo. I wanted to call you while looking at the bird, by cell would not work.

Sorry you no longer have anything to razz me about...

Maybe I'll get fat and grow a mullet and then you can tease me about that.

On June 14, 2006 at 8:50 AM Rondeau Ric said...

BT3
Hands above the head and wiggle and jiggle. Whooohooo!

See all you had to do is illegally cross into Canada, eh, to get the luck.
Just imagine what you'll see if you ever visit legally.

Too bad you weren't wearing your "Deep Wooods" cologne.

Third Rule of Birding
The longer, the farther and the harder you chase a life bird the greater the probability you will find it in the parking lot when you return to your car.

Congrats.

On June 14, 2006 at 9:11 AM Hugh & Judy said...

Way to go Bill
Congrats.

On June 14, 2006 at 11:50 AM robin andrea said...

Fantastic story-telling. I am so happy for you. What a wonderful and accommodataing little Connecticut warbler you found. Beautiful Great Gray Owl too.

How are your ankles today? Hope you are well on the mend.

On June 14, 2006 at 11:59 AM Susan Gets Native said...

Hooray, Bill!

*Susan does the Snoopy dance*

On June 14, 2006 at 12:32 PM Anonymous said...

Thanks for taking us with you on this adventure, fun to read, your excitement really brings a reminder of the simple things Ma Nature provides to make us look up and say WOW!
Hurray for you!
Caroline
Black Hills, SD

On June 14, 2006 at 12:58 PM Su Snyder said...

Bill: Congrats!! Now they'll probably start coming to your feeder. Su

On June 14, 2006 at 5:46 PM Mike said...

Brilliant account of two amazing sightings, Bill! Congrats.

On June 14, 2006 at 8:37 PM Bill said...

Totally enjoyed reading of your "quest." It is so.....wellll.....YOU! Enjoyed the whole blog and will be checking back on a regular basis.
Wilderness Bill of Longaberger

On June 14, 2006 at 9:10 PM Scott Fraser said...

I loved this post! How many times have I been in the same situation, including the gimpy ankle! This captured the spirit of chasing the lifers.... thanks for sharing it. I have done a lot of birding in Michigan, so the boggy habitat was giving me deja vu. I am going to share this post with friends whom I am trying to explain what birding is all about - at least for some of us.

On June 14, 2006 at 10:05 PM Betsy B-C said...

Bill,

You should try Highway 310 in Jan or Feb. The owls are wonderful. If you try to chase, you will sink beyond your knees in the snow.

On June 14, 2006 at 10:40 PM Bill of the Birds said...

Thanks To All for the kind words! I was worried that the post was WAY too long and thought of breaking it into two posts.

The ankle has improved but it's still really tender. Xrays have shown nothing. Am seeing a specialist about it on June 20. Hoping it's not tendonitis.

On June 15, 2006 at 9:52 AM Rondeau Ric said...

BT3

Just had an email from a friend and he referred to some one as a "combat birder".

I think you may deserve this designation... Hi my name is Bill and I’m a combat birder...I'll leap small streams, brave monster mosquitoes infiltrating from Canada, ticks the size of squirrels and booby trapped terrain in pursuit of a lifer..

On June 18, 2006 at 12:03 AM Anonymous said...

Connecticut! Gee, can you help me find one now? :) Congrats Bill! Cheryl (weedpicker)

On June 20, 2006 at 6:17 PM Patrick Belardo said...

I think most birders can relate to the "jinx bird". Great story! Now if I could just find a Cape May Warbler...

On March 21, 2012 at 11:53 AM Anonymous said...

Wow, what an adventure! Not sure I am quite up to the Connecticut Warbler type adventure, but I am sure my friend and I will give it our best try come June!

Thanks for the great post! Gives me hope. How is that ankle this year?
Kathy in Delray Beach


[BACK TO TOP]