On 8/16 I noticed an e-Bird Vermont Needs Alert
in my in-box with a report of a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron from “staff housing”
at Bomoseen State Park. That is an
exceptionally rare species for VT, and with no mention of the bird on the VT
listserve, and an observer’s name I didn’t recognize, I initially thought it could
be a questionable ID. But then I noticed
a link to a photo in the e-Bird report, clicked on the link, and it was indeed an
immature Yellow-crowned. The photo
showed the bird walking on a slate walkway with annual flowers right next to
it. With a 3+ hour one-way drive, and no
additional reports of the bird, I didn’t think much about chasing after it. Though at the same time there were several
reports of this species from MA, NH, and ME, so it made me wonder a bit.
Then a couple days later on 8/19 came a post on the listserve that a
birder re-found the Heron at the park, again with a photo posted, this time with
the bird in a more natural marsh habitat.
And then came news that birders saw it feeding on the lawns near the
entrance in the morning of the 20th – apparently a similar location as the
first post.
Now it seemed to be a chaseable bird. I traded e-mails with the birders who saw it
in the marsh and got explicit directions from them. I then contacted Denny Abbott who also needed
it for VT (if Denny needs a bird in New England it must be rare), and we
planned to head there on the 21st, despite the 7-hour round-trip drive. We were quite optimistic that we would find
the bird, not thinking that we would need to be there too early in the day, with
a likely arrival time of about 9:30.
But late on the evening of the 20th came the
first bit of negative news – birders looking for it mid-morning that day did
not see it. It was only seen before
10:30 that day. I rechecked the other 2
posts and they were from late afternoon/evening. So maybe the bird was only seen in the early
morning and evening. Of course that
would only be logical for a Night-Heron.
Now I wondered if we would get there early enough on the 21st. I traded e-mails with Hank Kaestner who was
planning to be there first thing on the 21st and he offered to give us updates
while we were on route.
It was 9:10 that morning and Denny and I
were just 20 minutes away when we got a call from Hank – he had seen the bird on
the lawn in the early morning, and watched it fly into a tree next to the staff
housing building at 7:30 presumably to roost for the day. Armed with this update, we were once again
very optimistic. When we got to the park
we went right to the tree Hank mentioned but couldn’t find the bird, despite
lots of searching. I struck up a conversation with one of the park staff and he suggested I talk to Chelsea who
lives in staff housing, and who was the person who first posted about this bird. She said she saw the bird walking on the lawn
at 8:30 that morning, and then watched it disappear into the woods toward the marsh
after that point. Denny and I walked
over to the marsh, but couldn’t find the bird there either. We had arrived an hour too late!
Chelsea and the workers said they had been
seeing the Heron “for a couple weeks”, always saw it feeding in the grass near the
entrance, but only in the early morning and in the evening. Chelsea suggested we would need to stay until
after 6 to see the bird that evening. With
that apparent history of evening sightings, Denny and I decided to wait it out
and stay in the park until the bird reappeared that evening.
As the day progressed I checked the marsh
numerous times, and checked other lawns in the park, but to no avail. Then at 5 PM another birder arrived. Unfortunately he
reported that he and several other birders did not see the bird the
previous evening despite a lot of searching.
Instantly our optimism was gone.
Between 5 and 7 PM five other birders arrived, and we all birded the
entire park until sunset with no luck.
We all re-convened at the entrance area at 7:45 and decided to call it quits for the
day. After the long drive (the drive home is always longer when you miss your target) I finally pulled in at 11:15. I
checked my e-mail and there was another Vermont Needs Alert - the Heron was seen in
the marsh at 8:10 that evening! I last checked the marsh at
7:15 with no luck. So after a 7-hour
round-trip drive, and 10 hours on-site, we missed the bird by an hour in the
morning and 25 minutes in the evening. Although
I’ve missed many other target birds I’ve chased after, that could
well have been my worst ever day of birding!
There were several additional e-Bird
reports of the Heron on the 22nd and 23rd, with the bird either seen on the lawns in the morning,
or in the marsh in the evening. There
were no other reports for several days, but then came another positive post for
the morning of the 28th. I was planning
a birding trip to Quebec a few days later, and this positive report made me
think about a possible itinerary where I could take a side-trip to Bomoseen
State Park to try for the Heron on my way to Canada. As my Quebec trip neared I called the park
but the worker said the bird hadn’t been seen for a while (though workers aren’t
typically there in the early morning when the bird is typically seen). But then I got a call from Denny who saw the bird
on the lawn the night before right at the entrance illuminated by the lights of
the entrance station. So I made my plans
– I’d try for the bird that night, get a hotel in nearby Rutland, and if needed
try again at first light the next morning.
Then it would be off to Quebec.
I got to the park at 9 PM, 90 minutes after
sunset. Although I hoped I might see it
the instant I arrived as Denny had, there was no bird to be seen. Glad that I brought my big lantern flashlight
(and that I bought a new 6-volt battery on route), I spent the next 15 minutes checking
out all the lawns near the entrance but to no avail. I was going to call it quits and hope for
better results the next morning, but on a lark decided to check out the marsh
before I left. Although birding in pitch
blackness is never the easiest thing to do, I was very familiar with the marsh
having birded it numerous times in the daylight the week before. So I knew all the access points where you
could gain views into various parts of the marsh and figured why not give it a
try.
I walked up the trail to the marsh and got
to the first viewing spot. I pointed the
flashlight into the marsh and almost instantly saw what looked like a wading
bird standing a short distance away. It
took a few seconds until I was finally able to get on the bird holding my
binoculars steady in one hand and the flashlight in the other. And there it was – the immature
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron! I took this
photo with my iPhone (no magnification) – if you look carefully you can see the
Heron standing in the bright spot in the middle of the photo which is the beam
from my flashlight. That is definitely
the first time I’ve gone jacklighting for a bird!
After such a painful first try for this
target bird, it sure was nice to find it the second time, particularly after dark.
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron was #271 for me
in Vermont, and the 238th species I’ve seen in all 6 New England states. I’ve now seen this
species in every eastern coastal state, all southeastern states except AL, a few Midwestern
states, and CA as a rare but local breeder (see my statebird map below).
No comments:
Post a Comment