Back in January 2002 a Bullock’s Oriole was
reported at a feeder in Dover, NH.
Although it had been coming to the feeder for some time, it took a while
for the news to get out. A couple of
birders who were able to try for it the first day it was reported got good
views of the bird. Unfortunately they
were the last birders to see it - I was among a group of many birders trying
for it the next day unsuccessfully.
Fast forward 13+ years later - a report
came across the NH listserve of a young male Bullock’s at a feeder in
Hampton. And similar to the Dover
sighting, it had been coming to a feeder for about 3 weeks, though it was very
irregular. I couldn’t get there for a
couple of days, but when multiple positive sightings were posted over the next
2 days, and birders were seeing it with only minimal wait times, I was
optimistic that I would find it on the 3rd day.
Then again, I still vividly remembered my failed NH Bullock’s Oriole
attempt in 2002. I contacted the
homeowner the night before to give me access to his backyard, and I was ready to
go.
I arrived at 9 AM and was immediately
greeted by the most friendly homeowner.
Although he welcomed me to try for the bird he mentioned he had not seen
it yet that morning. I started to get my
bearings. The last couple days the Oriole
had been seen in the backyard where the feeders were (though it was not
actually seen at the feeders), in trees behind the backyard, in trees in the
front yard, and in brush south of the yard.
In other words it could be almost anywhere. It turned out that the backyard was
surrounded by a high wooden fence, which meant you could only see in the yard
by passing through the garage and then actually standing in the yard. And the front and side yards weren’t visible
from the backyard, though the trees behind the backyard were visible from there. With no other birders there at the time with
whom to share information, that meant I might need to move from spot to spot to
keep an eye on all its possible perches.
I decided to start in the backyard and take it from there.
In the first several minutes there was a
fair amount of activity with a number of Chickadees and Titmice coming to the
feeder, and several Blue Jays in trees just outside the yard. But no sign of the target bird. I then walked to the front yard and spent a
few minutes scanning the trees and nearby brush, but again no Oriole. So it was back to the backyard to wait some
more. I had now been there about 30
minutes, and was wondering if this would be a case of “déjà vu all over
again” - remembering the missed Bullock's in NH in 2002, as well as the one in CT that required 3 different tries before I finally saw it. Then I noticed some movement of
a larger bird in the trees behind the yard.
I quickly put my binocs on the bird and there it was – the Bullock’s
Oriole! It eventually made its way to
the backyard and flew into an apple tree there.
It hopped over to one of the two apples still hanging on the tree, and
ate on it for several minutes, giving nice views. After a couple minutes it flew around to the
side yard out of view. A bit later it
reappeared, and flew to the ground in the backyard eating on some apples that
had fallen from the tree. A few seconds
later it flew up into the trees behind the yard, then flew farther back into
the woods, and then out of site.
Bullock’s Oriole was #358 for me in NH, and
a remarkable 4th new statebird for NH in 2015.
With a total statelist of only 400 in NH, I’ve now seen nearly 90% of
the total list – by far my best list of any state. NH was my 4th state where I’ve seen this
species as a rarity (along with MA, CT and PA), as well as 17 more expected states
out west (see my statebird map below).
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