The last time I was in the San Francisco
Bay area on a business trip I added a vacation day for my 3rd try for the
Falcated Duck. Not only did I not see
the Duck on that December trip, but I also missed a chance to try for a Rustic
Bunting that was first spotted in San Francisco the day before. In fact, late in the afternoon that day, a
couple birders joined me at Colusa NWR having just seeing the Bunting. Way to throw salt in my wounds.
Luckily both the Rustic Bunting and the
Falcated Duck continued to be seen – the Bunting was seen quite reliably, though
the Duck was reported only intermittently.
So with work trips to the Bay Area about every month, I could try for
both birds on a future trip. As my January
trip started to come together, I planned to add another vacation day, starting
at Golden Gate Park at dawn for the Bunting, and then heading to Colusa NWR to
try for the Duck for the 4th time. And
speaking of planning – RI birder Scott Tsagarakis was heading to the area the
week before my trip. I gave him advice
on the Duck though originally he wasn’t planning to try for it because it wasn’t
reliable. He was successful with both
birds, and gave me great advice on the Bunting.
I was hoping to be just as successful.
I arrived at the corner of Nancy Pelosi
Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Golden Gate Park about 30 minutes
before dawn. Although past advice
suggested looking for the Bunting in and around a brush pile near this
intersection, Scott suggested I look for the bird beneath a large tree about 50
feet to the south. In the pre-dawn light
I quickly found the tree and was in place to look for the bird before activity
began. Scott also said the target bird was
with Juncos when he saw it. So although it
was still quite dark, I was excited when I started to hear Junco calls
nearby. The calls got closer and
eventually were coming from the vicinity of the tree in question. I scanned the ground beneath the tree and
started to see “Oregon” Juncos drop in from above. I continued to scan and only saw Juncos. But after about 30 seconds they started to
fly away, so my scanning was beginning to become a bit more frantic. With just a couple birds remaining on the ground
I picked up a different bird with some striping beneath. Lighting was bad, so I wasn’t sure if this
was the bird. It took me a while, but I eventually
picked up the characteristic head pattern and slight crest of the Rustic
Bunting – Lifebird!
The Rustic Bunting was ABA Lifebird #742,
Lower 48 #721, and #372 for me in CA.
Two of my first 11 new statebirds of 2015 have been lifers!
Because lighting wasn’t very good (it was
still 15 minutes before dawn), I decided to wait a while to try to see the bird
again. In the next 45 minutes I saw more
Juncos, but did not see the Bunting again.
Though it was interesting to see both a “Sooty” Fox Sparrow and either a
“Slate-Colored” or “Thick-Billed” Fox Sparrow while I waited. So with another possible lifer still about a
2 ½ hour drive away, I decided to head out of the park at about 8.
En route to Colusa NWR skies were partly cloudy
with an occasional patch of thick fog. A
few miles from the refuge skies were clear so I was very hopeful the weather
would be cooperative. But within a mile
of the site I hit fog as thick as pea soup.
At 10:30 I arrived at the nearly infamous “green gate” along Route 20 where
the bird had been seen of late, and couldn’t see 50 feet in front of me. Amazing.
There was another birder there who had been waiting since dawn for the
fog to lift. But even though the fog
finally lifted, the sun came out which meant we were looking almost directly
into the sun. Long story short – I left
at about 4 PM after my 4th failed attempt at my nemesis – the Falcated Duck.
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