Cali Calls Me Back

October 4th 

Well, I was about ten minutes from home, after driving back from California, my friend Dorian alerted me to a Dusky Warbler that had just showed up about an hour north of San Francisco, in Marin County. I'd left a few days too soon! 

I picked up my dog from boarding and arrived home. 

My home air conditioning was out. It was 92 degrees in my house. My car AC had not been working since I left California, and it had been a hot couple of days. It would be yet another hot night. 

Twenty minutes after that, John, based in Sacramento, messaged me that he was twenty minutes away from an Emperor Goose. 

Um, what? 

I had so much to do as a single homeowner after being gone three weeks. My yard was a mess. My dog had missed me. I had three weeks of laundry to do before I could even think of going anywhere. I looked at plane tickets anyway. $750 round trip. Well, $375 each way...I'd learned this summer not to ever book round trip tickets. If you book one way and cancel, it can be refunded for credit. If you book round trip, and cancel half...well...I now have a standing one-way ticket from Seattle to somewhere I'll need to use at some point. If you cancel half of a round trip ticket, little had I known, you have to fly from that same airport. 

I decided to wait and see if the birds would stick another day. 

October 5th 

Both birds reported. I got my home AC fixed...one thing out of the way. Now to address the slow leak in my tire that started on my way back from California, so I wouldn't end up with a flat tire at the McAllen Airport if I end up flying to California. Discount Tire found a nail in my tire and fixed it for free. I was very thankful that I'd only had to put air in once from California to home, and that the trip home went smoothly! I looked into tickets, cringed at the price, and decided not to purchase. 

October 6th

Both birds reported again, before noon central. At 700 birds, I really need to be deciding now whether to make a run for the record. If I'd decided at a later date that I wanted to take a shot at the record, I'd regret chasing these birds. 

I bought the ticket, flying out this evening. It's the first same-day ticket I've ever purchased, and it felt a little sudden and shocking. I packed a day pack, and was ready. I flew McAllen to Dallas, Dallas to Sacramento. John picked me up at the airport just after midnight. 

October 7th 

Day four for the birds hopefully staying put! We left before sunrise to head the two hours to the goose. When we arrived to the water treatment plant they'd been at, upon initial scan there were no birds in sight. Then, we noticed it feeding on the grass along with four Greater White-fronted Geese. Emperor Goose chase successful!

 

Yay! We watched the bird for about fifteen minutes, and then it was time to press on to try for the Dusky Warbler. Big Years sure don't leave much room for birding the way you'd prefer - which for me, would have been to spend a good amount of time studying this life bird. 

It was just under three hours to the Dusky Warbler location, which flew by quickly. John and I had been Facebook friends for a while, but never met in person. We talked birds, and guiding, and vegetarianism, and shared stores from our years of birding. 

Parked at the Dusky Warbler location, we walked out, expecting to find the birders whose cars were clearly parked by ours. So many Subarus! We found nobody. I called up fellow big year birder Jason, who had texted me twenty minutes previously that the bird was "stupid cooperative". Fifteen minutes later, another text followed "it's moving like crazy!" Yikes! When we arrived, the bird had just flown out of view, over a fence. We found the birders. Nobody had seen the bird. Anxiety ensued. I worried about this being the bird that I missed by four minutes...that kind of thing happens on occasion when you're consistently chasing birds. 

After about an hour of mulling around the area with about half a dozen other birders, and a few jumps of energy at chipping Lincoln's Sparrows - it sounds almost exactly like a Lincoln's - a young birder refound the Dusky Warbler in an alleyway of sorts. 

Yes! We enjoyed good looks at the bird for about twenty minutes, then headed on to look for a first county record of Magnolia Warbler for John. While he was there looking, I managed to squeeze in a Zoom presentation on my big year to Mecklenberg Audubon Society in North Carolina. It was well attended, with forty people watching! Unfortunately, the Magnolia Warbler hadn't been seen in several hours, and was never seen again. We headed to a delicious Mexican restaurant and celebrated the mostly successful day with margaritas. Salmon on a bed of greens tasted amazing after all the non-perishable food I'd been eating for the last several weeks! 

Year List: 702