So there I am, checking out Wheatley Harbour, when I remember a recent topic of conversation I had with Ken Burrell:
Ken: " I've never seen anything rare at Wheatley Harbour"
Me: "You didn't see the Slaty-backed Gull / Ivory Gull / Neotropic Corm here a few years ago"
Ken: "no"
Me: "no, neither did I"
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And guess what? The harbour had virtually nothing. Driving out, I did a quick scan of Muddy Creek from the moving car. There's a Cormorant there that looks small, but it's probably an optical illusion. I'll do what I do best: Take a picture and then ID the bird:
It probably looks small because it's low on the branch compared to the other birds. Cr@p, it looks pretty wierd in the photo. Is that white on the face? Maybe I should actually set my camera properly and get a good photo:
Ok yeah that's a Neotropic Cormorant. woo! (insert usual rare-bird finding excitement here). I set to telling my lovely girlfriend, my parents and then the birding world about the presence of the bird.
Cr@p! They all just freaked out and jumped in the water!
Well, I guess it's good that I got a swimming photo too, but where is it going? Am I going to be the only person who see's this bird? (Always more fun when it hangs around). Hey wait, it's actually pretty close to the road up there, I should drive up and take a photo:
^$^#!!! I didn't think the car would scare the birds!!!!! It's flying!!! $%^#~!!! I know there are people coming to see this bird!!!!!!!! Idiot
Oh thank god, they're all moving back to the first branch. Hey look, the Neo-corm is fighting with the others for a resting space.
This is great... But man do I have to go to the bathroom. I bet if I drive up behind that big evergreen tree, I can go to the bathroom before anyone else arrives, and the cormorant won't be able to see me there.
JESUS!!!! I just scared them all again.... They're swimming away! I knew I shouldn't have done this. I better leave before I totally ruin this.........
So yeah, there you go.. An excuse to post some more photos, and tell I story I would never have admitted to if the bird wasn't hanging around for all to see!
A interesting account!
ReplyDeleteGoes to show you need to look at every bird. I've done that a few times and turned up some good birds (eg. Sage Thrasher--thought it was a Robin, from a distance!).
Yeah!! I saw the bird yesterday (Apr 25) on the same branch with Double-cresteds. Despite missing twice on the earlier bird I could not ignore Easter Sunday so had to endure Monday morning work (I like Monday morning work - sort of) before the run to Wheatley. Thanks Brandon.
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