So, Been a tad busy last month plus keeping tabs on and welcoming little people to the family. Being a Grandpa doesnt suck. The little guys is cute, but be careful, he bites. I cant wait to turn them into birders. Got home from work Friday and saw the Ivory Gull posts on Facebook. Seriously, Ivory Gull ???? In Illinois ???? Circle the wagons, this is a must chase. I was lucky enough to round up Les Allen and Dave Weth on short notice and we left for Quincy at 7:00 Saturday morning. Ive never been to Quincy. Figured we could zip right off 72 and presto.....Quincy. Not so much. (Note to self, before leaving on a short notice chase, go ahead and consult a map to destination, just saying). Fortunatley Matt Fraker was already on site, had bird, and was able to provide us with very specific directions to the bird. Clearly rare bird sightings were enjoyed only by the individual locating said bird and people withing range of his/her screams before the invention of cell phones and social media. Bird seen, absolutely incredible. never in wildest dreams would I have expected to see a bird of this magnitude in home state. Flat awesome. Drop Les and Dave off. So, Les.....Sage Thrasher tomorrow ? (Dave already got it New Years day, hes obviously excluded from this conversation). Pick Les up 7:00 this morning. Head to Putnam county with stop at El Paso for Snowy Owl on way north. No Snowy Owl, Dave does not have that bird yet in 2015, s%&t, that would have been a nice one upper. Conditions had obviously changed drastically since yesterday, some nervous thoughts entered my mind about cold front, wind, snow..... no way. Thrasher has been there for almost a month. Slam dunk, two lifers in first 4 days of new year. Welp, found site, called Dave for confirmation we were at right spot. Yep, I see the two tiny plastic deer, yep, theres the fake plastic goose, yep, two trees, blue berries....well not many blue berries left. I see a few. Ok.....good to go............. Les and I gave it a more then the ole college try. We spent most of the morning in area trying to locate bird. Guess diminishing food supply and cold front may have sent this guy packing. Thats birding. Anywho, Was a fun start to 2015. Good Birding, Wes
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 22:45:45 +0000
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