However, the last week or two on St. Paul certainly were exciting for Ashley and me. I'm not sure where to begin so I'll just run things down in order.
I suppose a good starting place is this picture:
This bad boy is a CANVASBACK, an excellent find by Scott. Although he found it on Webster Lake, Ash and I were lucky to relocate the bird on Weather Bureau Lake later in the day. This was a new island bird for Scott as well as both of us. Quite rare in the Pribs, this was only the ~7th record. This bird REALLY reminded me of the COMMON POCHARD that showed up on Weather Bureau Lake on October 11 of last year; similar species, similar timing, same location.
Ok, I lied... I think a better place to begin the recent madness is actually with this photo:
It was October 11, the last day we had clients. In fact, Susan and I were driving the SW Road in the morning just to see if we could find anything in the last couple of hours before the flight.... and then... the bird.
We flushed a bird off the road just west of the Blubber Dump... and it was interesting. After spending month after month driving these same roads looking at the same suspects, it's certainly obvious when you have something rare on your hands. This little brown bird certainly behaved like a "rare". It ducked in the roadside veg and refused to come out (that's your first warning). When it flushed, it was SMALL and had very obvious white outer edges to the tail (something smaller than a LALO with white in the tail? Warning #2). We crept up and when it flushed, I somehow managed to get the above picture of the bird. The problem is, we couldn't find it again and that photo was the only proof we had! At first I suspected something like Little Bunting but, as Ashley pointed out at home in photos online, Little Bunting doesn't have white on two outer tail feathers like our bird... but buntings like Reed, Pallas's, and Yellow-browed did!
CRRAAP. The bird haunted me. I emailed the photo around, studied stuff online... but in the end it wasn't quite good enough of a photo to pull the trigger on which species. The illustrations in the Rare Birds book didn't match some examples we found online and that meant a lot of conflicting sources and, basically, we were screwed with narrowing down the ID. It really did haunt me too. We tried to find the bird again later... no bird. Did I mention how it haunted me? I HAD a lifer... and knew it was a GOOD bird, a Code 4 or 5... but it slipped away and I didn't know what kind it was. It's a horrible feeling. -sigh- Guess we had to move on.
The rest of the day wasn't shabby though. For example, here's a JACK SNIPE at Antone Slough that Scott had found (this was presumably a different bird from the Pumphouse Lake bird which was still present):
And if you want proof that the bird was on St. Paul... here's a photo of it with our well-known white vans:
The picture isn't anything great but hell, that's a Code 4 vagrant and a lifer for Ashley! It was then that we realized it had company... another little brown bunting! Here's a horrible photo showing both birds (if you feel like playing "Where's Waldo?"):
Damn, the second bird was "just" a LITTLE BUNTING as well! We made the call to Scott and he and Alison came out and snagged the birds, new ABA birds for both of them. This is a great species to see in the Pribs too; this record was only the 3rd from the island all-time. However... we knew that even though we found two rare buntings that evening... they weren't the suspicious bird that got away earlier. Still, it was an amazingly rewarding day for birding long and hard and finding good birds by doing so.
The next day, the 13th, the birding became even more mental (believe it, folks, it was October in the Pribs!). It started out at SW Road again where Ashley and I checked on the Little Buntings..., yep, still there. This time I managed a better photo too:
After that, we were heading towards SW Point when we passed the Blubber Dump... and then lightning struck... at the EXACT SAME SPOT AS BEFORE. I slammed on the brakes; there, flying right in front of us, was a tiny brown bunting with a lot of white in the tail! This was the exact same spot that the mystery bunting got away from me 3 days prior. This time, I meant business. This time, Ashley and I saw where the bird dropped. Cameras out... stealth mode... we were about to rare all over the island with this bird... we could feel it. The bird flushed... cameras clicked, cell-phone cameras rolled movie. NOTHING. Ok, frustrating, but we saw where it dropped. We tried again... and this time, we GOT it. Well, what we got was a blob in the photos that was NOT helpful and certainly not identifiable. We thought we knew where it dropped... but it wasn't there. We zig-zagged all around trying desperately to find the bird again... but failed. I was frantic... and sick to my stomach; it had happened again. That rare lifer got away.
Ashley went back to the van to grab a different phone (one with the right app) so that we could try playback as a last resort. Meanwhile, I had slumped to my knees on the tundra. Exhausted and really quite cold (my gloves had been strewed back along the side of the road earlier by their frantic owner), I didn't know what to try next. Then I raised my head... I had heard something that didn't fit in. I heard it again. I stood up and tried to find it... it called once more to my left. I snapped my head around just in time to see the mystery bunting leap from its perch and fly up, up, and away towards the road. I couldn't believe it, we had refound it! This time, thankfully, we started to make progress with it. The next time it flushed, I managed some sharp photos of the back of the bird:
Notice the white on two tail feathers on each side? Whatever it was... we knew it wasn't Little! Here's another photo from the same sequence:
The bird kept flying and getting farther away but I managed another torpedo-shot:
We dropped our cameras and watched the bird fly... and then our luck REALLY improved. The blasted bird perched UP instead of diving into cover! Albeit, it was probably a quarter mile away but we saw it from a distance and snapped a bunch of photos, hoping that one of them might be sharp enough. It's not sharp but take a look at what I got:
It looked to have a pale median crown stripe (apparently a good fieldmark for Reed Bunting). Also, I looked at the flight shots and because I expected a PALLAS'S BUNTING to be much paler in the rump, I was really leaning towards REED BUNTING for this bird. But the most important thing was that we realized it wasn't something less exciting like another Rustic or Little Bunting. Once we had that confirmation, we called Scott and Alison and they zoomed out.
The four of us swept up towards where we thought the bunting had dropped... but didn't flush it! Uh oh! Thankfully, Scott was looking to my left and he saw the bird pop up and back down! We crept up and again, flushed the bird. We all heard it call (which could be really helpful down the road) but we lost the bird (but not before we watched it gain altitude and fly way out over the water!). Don't worry, we saw it come back to land... we just didn't know where it had landed.
Anyway, I assumed my photos were going to be good enough to clinch the ID between Reed and Pallas's and so instead of rushing back home to work on photos, Ashley and I continued birding. THAT was the right move.
Not even a mile down the road... Ashley pointed out an interesting brown bird in flight pretty high over the tundra to our left (near the SW lava flow). We then watched it plummet into the grass. "Here we go again" I muttered as we got out of the van, checked the settings on our cameras, and set off to hopefully relocate the bird. The first flush, it got up, I got pictures, and the bird went back towards the shoulder of the road. But first, I looked at my photos... what did I capture?
Well, that big orange eyebrow told me one thing... we had just found a Code 4 vagrant called a SIBERIAN ACCENTOR! Another lifer for Ashley (and only my second ever), we were thrilled. The bird had landed on the shoulder of the road where I snapped a quick picture of it:
Once again, I called Scott and Alison. However, I couldn't reach them (they had gone NE where cell coverage is spotty). Thankfully, a minute or two later, they called back... but I couldn't hear what they were saying; I assumed they were telling me that they were returning for the accentor.
I was wrong.
I got a text a minute later from Scott... they had found a BROWN SHRIKE (Code 4) near the Webster Gate. And then the chase was on. They were rushing SW to see the accentor, we were rushing NE to see the shrike. Before long, our two white vans sped past each other. We arrived on the scene but at first couldn't find the shrike. However, this SNOW GOOSE was a very random surprise (it was a new island year bird for me, actually):
However, our main target, the shrike, was being a pain. I saw the bird poorly as it flew from an area near the house up and over the Webster Seawatch dunes. We rushed there but I only saw it a second more as it was swooping along the dunes heading northeast... and that was the last any of us ever saw the shrike.
We headed back towards SW Point to continue birding where we had left off. While there, we swung up to the cliffs near the gate where Scott and Alison had found a SONG SPARROW. Lucky for me, it was still in the same place. The picture isn't great but it captures proof of this new island bird for me:
But all in all, what a day. Ashley had snagged a couple of lifers and I was lucky to get one as well (assuming we could figure out the Reed/Pallas's thing). However, the following day was relatively quiet in terms of rarities (we're becoming quite jaded... we had a beautiful GYRFALCON kiting directly overhead). In fact, we saw the Gyr making several passes at catching a NORTHERN SHRIKE! I can safely say that I hadn't seen that before.
Also, Scott and Alison had found a new NORTHERN SHRIKE at the quarry crab pots. We swung through basically so that we could say we saw two shrikes that day:
By this point, we were down to our last day of birding on the island. We never did see the mystery bunting again but not for lack of trying. Instead, this SONG SPARROW found us while we were parked at the Ridge Wall parking area (and had some serious plans for us):
And boy, was it interested. It landed on the van... then the mirror.. then the side of the door... then the hood... then back to the mirror. It continued hopping all over the car for the next half hour. I rolled the window down and sure enough, it came INSIDE the car. It came down to the driver's seat, the dashboard, back out to the mirrors, etc. Daft bird.
Believe it or not, I think the long-staying JACK SNIPE actually had left Pumphouse Lake the previous night. We had clear skies, light wind out of the NE... it was perfect migration weather. We walked its favorite patch but no bird. In its absence, I took a picture of the gull flock instead. Note the not-rare-at-all SLATY-BACKED GULL in the foreground:
Speaking of SBGUs, here's another from SW Point taking a yawn:
It was exceptionally calm though. So much so that some passerines came out of the woodwork (does that phrase work if there's no wood for these birds in the first place??). For example, Ash and I stumbled on these (flagged in eBird) YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS along Big Lake:
In the end, it was a beautiful last day or two.
I'm sure I'll throw together a little summary post from the last 5 months (and maybe I'll discuss the mystery bunting some more!) but with that, my posts from St. Paul Island have come to a close.
