Yesterday Robert and I went to the airport in search of a snowy owl that had previously been seen, but with no luck. (We talked to a woman there who had been out every day last week looking for it with no success.) I think snowy owl has officially taken over as my nemesis bird. It was sort of amazing how many partly melted then re-frozen clumps of snow in the general shape of an owl there were out there, though. I also saw some surprisingly bird-like light fixtures and security cameras.
We also went to a park with a lake in the area and took a walk through a grassland-turning-to-marshland that was almost completely bereft of birds. Seeing a few chickadees, cardinals, and house finches was the excitement of this walk. The path ended at a lake but we had to turn back when we hit a marshy area that we couldn't cross.
So we approached the lake from a different place, this time immediately happening to meet up with a big guy dressed in camo and carrying a spotting scope and a camera with a gigantic lens. He showed us two gull species that are usually found in the arctic but that for whatever reason decided to spend some time here. I'm not usually very thrilled by looking at gulls, but it was interesting to see these birds (which were clearly different looking once you knew what you were looking for). It made me think about how Robert's grandmother had a birding friend (appropriately named Martin) who lived on a lake and frequently phoned her to come out and see a 3rd year hybrid whatever gull that he had found - she wasn't into gulls either and so had to gauge how often she had to show up to look at his gulls to ensure that he kept calling her when he saw an exciting non-gull bird.
This experience has not transformed me into a gull lover, but it was with great satisfaction that I added to my life list:
Glaucous gull
Thayer's gull
2 comments:
How exciting to get 2 more life birds! Keep looking for that snowy owl.
The Glaucous was napping on the ice next to a Ring-Billed and a bunch of Herring Gulls, the Thayer's was doing power laps in the air over the water exhaust from a power plant. Both were definitely "that one is different" in amongst the Herring. A Franklin's (not a lifer, but a bird which should be off the coast of Chile at this time of year) was also hanging out near the other gulls. (Not quite with - there was a definite five feet or so from where he was to the much larger Herring gulls.)
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