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Posted by Paul Bithorn on 19:44:58 05/04/13
One of the joys of birding for me is seeing ear-to-ear smiles from birders that have just had crippling looks at a rare bird.
Many had traveled great distances by car or plane to see the rarity. Being in the right place at the right time would be essential to their ultimate success. Teamwork, closely working with the hordes of other birders searching the low coppice for the bird,can change your luck in a New York minute. I had that experience this morning, thanks to the persistence of many good birders, their keen eyes and a willingness to spread the word, each time the Grassquit was located in the Boy Scout Camp.
Thanks to Roy Morris, a birder from the west coast of Florida, whom I had the privilege of meeting, we were able to watch my "nemesis" bird actively feed on the nectar of a flower spike of a Sea Grape (Coccoloba uvifera),while we stared in total wonderment at our good fortune.Fixing our gaze on the bird, the word was quickly spread and we were soon joined by the birding papparazi and cameras were heard clicking at fractions of a millisecond, memorializing this blessed event.
When, I turned around there were twenty-plus birders with the aforementioned grin. I was soon hugging my good friend of 30 years, Steve Gross, who like me, had barely missed seeing the elusive Grassquit found earlier by Bob Wallace and Chris Rasmussen. I looked for friend,John Murphy, who made the trip from Alligator Point in the panhandle and shares the many rarities that show up in his own backyard and was happy to see that he got the word....... and the bird.
You see, in September of 2003,John had missed the Black-faced Grassquit that was being seen at Long Pine Key in Everglades National Park, that I had spent 60 hours and 12 trips looking for.While, hearing it sing and fly off on multiple occasions, I refused to count the bird.My ill fortune was well chronicled on the TAS Birdboard at the time. I spent four hours in vain at Bill Baggs this past Wednesday, May 8th - my thirteenth try - but had a good feeling about today.
A special thanks to Vern for driving me out there and Larry Manfredi and Carl Edwards, who seem to bring me good luck and to all of the other birders that I had the good fortune of meeting today.
Life is good................... A tasty Delirium Tremens, a Belgian Strong Pale Ale, was quaffed as my celebratory libation.
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