September 14th, 2013: Never Give Up!

                   One of the many trials of birding is the patience needed to look for a bird. Sometimes you'll be birding at your local patch, and it will be so slow that you won't even be hearing any Black-capped Chickadees. Or you'll be chasing a vagrant for hours and you'll leave without even the slightest glimpse of the sought-after bird. My story here will be talking about the latter. Rather than going through my entire day and listing all the species I saw, I'm going to talk about a brief part of my day of birding. This anecdote will talk about our chase of a staked out Stilt Sandpiper on Port Kenyon Road, in Ferndale, an annual, but scarce, species in Humboldt county.

                  After having participated in Rob Fowler's monthly survey of Shay Park, where we were able to relocate an Ash-throated Flycatcher and a Vesper Sparrow, the former being a good bird for the patch, and the latter being a good bird for the county, Samantha Bacon, an enthusiastic beginner birder, a buddy of mine, Stephen Montano, that also attends Humboldt State University, and I decided we wanted to chase the staked out Stilt Sandpiper. This bird would have been a state lifer for me, and an all-around lifer for my two cronies. Rob and two other birders that participated in the survey decided to join. The more the merrier! We drove down from the town of Arcata to Ferndale, approximately a 30-minute drive. We finally arrived, and made our way to the edge of the slough where the bird had been sighted. There was a remarkable amount of shorebird activity, from the typical peep species, to both species of yellowlegs and the ubiquitous Killdeer. Unfortunately, our dowitcher-emulating species eluded us. We decided to walk down the bank, where every step was a gamble, as the mud rendered the terrain near-impossible to walk on without slipping and either falling on your posterior or falling into the murky water. The best bird that our endeavor yielded was a single Wilson's Snipe, a county lifer for me. But we hadn't driven 30 minutes and risked ruining our optics by falling into the repulsive water to see a snipe. We wanted the Stilt Sandpiper. We spent a good hour and a half walking up and down the bank without sighting our bird. Being realistic, we decided to call it quits and head out.

                    Before returning to Arcata, Rob wanted to stop at a known shorebirding location and see what there was to see. A tad more productive, we came across a Common Murre and a bevy of shorebirds, including my county Snowy Plover. Satisfied with our finds, we finally thought it was time to head on out. Rob's gray 4x4 led the path and we slowly followed it, our excitement and enthusiasm we had prior to our arrival virtually gone. However, as Rob's car made a left at a T-Intersection, Samantha turned right. Puzzled as to why she did that, I asked her what she doing. She then said that she was determined to find the bird, for she was extremely looking forward to this sighting. So we were heading back to the end of Port Kenyon Road, back to the same slough. I unenthusiastically exited the vehicle, because all this place reminded me of was the failed attempt at seeing a fantastic species. I peered through my binoculars at the end of the bank and noticed a cluster of yellowlegs, both Greater and Lesser, but I don't notice anything else. This is when Samantha asked me what she was looking at (she knew it wasn't a regular bird). All of a sudden, my excitement grew ten-fold. I looked through the scope and there it was: our Stilt Sandpiper! It was preening itself, but the longer, decurved bill, and the broad supercilium were still quite evident. It was actually in the middle of the group of yellowlegs I was looking at with my binoculars. We slowly approached the bird, which it didn't seem to notice, and we began digiscoping it. Right afterwards, Rob called me asking where he had gone, and I informed him about the bird. He was back in less than five minutes. We all earned incomparable views as it mingled with the adjacent yellowlegs.

                  This little anecdote just goes to show that patience and persistence are the traits that are needed when birding. Haste and impatience are key to avoid seeing any species. If I had gone chasing that bird on my own, not only would I have missed it the first time, but I wouldn't have bothered returning and trying for it a second time. So thank you Samantha Bacon for your optimism and unwillingness to give up! It earned us a great bird, a great time, and a great life lesson.

Stilt Sandpiper
(notice the long, decurved bill,
and the broad suprcilium)