Frankly, there were a few new things this year including a new team member. Unfortunately, Barbara and Tara couldn't make it this year but Harvey stepped up in their place. Unbeknownst to Harvey, he was going to be on the team anyway we just had to find the right way to hook him. We used some good bait. No, not the kind of bait that women use on men. The kind that birders use on other birders. The kind that fun people use on other fun people. We used the oldest ploy - the "we're shorthanded and need help" ploy. He never saw it coming. He certainly didn't see it on Friday when I texted him about scouting shorebirds. He didn't see it at 3 AM on Saturday when he picked us up in HIS VAN!
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WSB - Philly Bird Nerds 2014 |
He started to get wary when we gave him the camo bucket hat that Barbara and Di got him with the team logo on it. I think he started to so come to his senses around 3 PM. He was delirious by 7. We ended the day at 9 M with a new high total - 147. Di and Lori were both terrific all day. They had plenty of energy, kept Harvey laughing so he would keep driving, picked out a ton of birds AND didn't want to quit until we got an owl - which we finally did at 8:30 PM.
As usual, the day before and the day after the World Series was great. Great weather and great birds. The actual day was overcast with wind and periods of rain which made tallying the birds difficult.
We started slow in the wee hours and then picked up steam with a ton of warblers at Higbee. On any other day, we would have been tickled but on the Big Day the only thing we think about is what we missed. We didn't get Bald Eagle. We didn't get Killdeer. We didn't get Cedar Waxwing. We didn't get 2 ducks that we found easily the day before. But we did try new things (ask the others about 5 Hour Energy), we had a ton of laughs and got a new teammate ( oh yeah, we'll rope him in again next year).
You'll notice no photos from the day. The pace was too fast, we got alot of birds by hearing them rather than seeing them, and the weather was terrible. Here are some photos from Sunday morning which was an awesome migration day, awesome weather, and cooperative birds.
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Indigo Bunting (with floss?) |
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Prairie Warbler |
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Scarlet Tanager |
Feel free to sponsor the team with a donation. Send me a check. We will forward them on to a conservation fund later. We haven't picked one yet but we will soon.
2 comments:
Well, well, well...out having fun without us? Well, we had plenty of fun without you! HH
Yeah. Now I know what Connie does when I'm out of town. Sounds like you all had fun.
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