While
taking a break from chores around the house I opened my e-mails to see what
might be around. Needless to say my
attention was instantly drawn to one that had just been posted with this
subject line – “FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER, Gilsland Farm, Falmouth”. I’ve seen this South American vagrant in New
England in MA, NH, and CT, but still needed it in ME, so of course I wanted to
run right out and chase after it.
However as is often the case, I had commitments that day and could not
go twitching. And worse yet, I couldn’t
go out the next day either. Would the
bird still be around on Day 3? Vagrant
Fork-tails will often stick around for a while, so I tried to be optimistic
that I might still have the chance to see it in a couple days.
The
e-mails and eBird Alerts continued throughout Day 1, and then luckily continued
through most of Day 2 as well. The bird
was being reasonably reliable, though it was more difficult to find when a
cooler fog bank engulfed the farm. Under
those conditions the flycatcher’s food was likely less active, so the bird was
not surprisingly less visible feeding from lower perches. All sightings were around the North Meadow,
and since I’ve birded Gilsland Farm before, I had a general idea of the habitat
and trails in this area. With a bit of
research I compiled a pretty good list of areas where the bird had been seen
over those 2 days – basically any perch around the perimeter or in the middle
of North Meadow. It would be a large
area to cover, but I was hopeful that there would be lots of eyes looking for it
when I finally had a chance to give it a try.
I
left the house pre-dawn on Day 3 to make the 2-hour drive to Falmouth. Just after dawn I saw a post that the
Fork-tail was refound that morning, but the weather was once again cool and
foggy at Gilsland Farm, so the bird was not being very cooperative. But at least it was still around!
I
arrived at 8 AM and quickly noticed 3 birders out in the middle of North
Meadow. I made my way down to them and
one of the birders was the person who had spotted the target bird earlier that
morning. Unfortunately it had not been
seen for at least an hour. Soon
thereafter I came upon a birding tour group who had decided to stop at a spot
with a nice overlook of virtually the entire North Meadow in hopes of spotting
the bird on an exposed perch. And then minutes
later the leader of that group got a phone call from another birder on site
saying he had refound the bird. After a
few anxious seconds of searching, I spotted the Fork-tailed Flycatcher in the
distance hunkered down in an apple tree.
The pressure was off, but I wanted to get much better views of this most
attractive adult bird and its long tail feathers.
After
a short walk I made my way down much closer to the apple tree where the
Flycatcher had been spotted earlier. The
bird was still there, but mostly obscured by foliage. Eventually I got some better views of the
bird, and was able to get this passable phonescoped shot of it in the fog.
A
couple minutes later it flew down to some shrubs in front of me and began to
eat berries, providing this “Kodak moment”.
Satisfied
with these great looks, I began my short walk out of the park, only to realize
that the bird had flown into trees right in front of me. So of course I had to stop to get a few more
phonescoped shots of this amazing bird. Unfortunately
the thick fog limited picture quality quite a bit (not that phonescoped
pictures are ever very good quality).
I
headed back to my car very satisfied with my great views of this spectacular Fork-tailed
Flycatcher, which was #341 for my ME list.
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