Nemesis Chase!

Dec 6

Dave dropped me off at the Portland airport at 6 am for my flight. I'd get to Newark by 7:30 pm. Yuck! I've been flying with American Airlines, and nearly everything goes through Dallas. A 3 hour 40 minute flight, followed by a 3 hour 27 minute flight. 

I arrived in Newark, picked up my rental car, and went straight to my hotel, too tired to stop anywhere for food. I bought microwave popcorn in the hotel vending machine, and made it in the microwave in my room. There are so many unglamorous aspects to big years that only other big year birders will fully understand. 

Truth be told, I'm really getting ready to be done. I'm tired of traveling, of airports, of the stress of chasing birds, or perhaps more aptly put, the stress of the possibility of missing birds, when so much time effort and financial investment is involved. 

Dec 7

After a full night's sleep, I jumped in the car and started the drive to eastern Pennsylvania in search of Pink-footed Goose. There had been a bird an hour closer, in New Jersey, that I had planned to go look for, but it wasn't seen at all yesterday, so I was erring on the side of the bird that was seen yesterday. Also, the Pennsylvania bird was reliable in the morning, and the New Jersey bird had been most reliable in the afternoon. One of my financial tactics has been to get in and get out of places as fast as I  can, minimizing days of car rentals, hotel rooms, meals eaten on the road. 

I arrived at the reservoir to a couple of birders already scanning, but most without scopes. I surveyed the flock of Canada Geese twice with my scope, and nothing. 

Scores of geese were making their way into the reservoir by the minute, likely having roosted somewhere in the nearby fields for the night. On the third scan - there it was! 

My heart nearly skipped a beat. I'd gone in search of this species so many times during the years I  spent living in Cape May, New Jersey, soon after college - ten years ago! Pink-footed Goose! 

I stuck around another twenty minutes or so, making sure the other birders got on the bird, before heading to Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge to look for Rusty Blackbirds. 

After spending an hour at Great Swamp with no luck, I decided to prioritize the King Eider that has been hanging out on Staten Island, New York. My friend Gabriel already had the bird pinned down. I drove the hour, met him in the parking lot, and we walked out to the sleeping King Eider. 

We waited about 30 minutes, in hopes that it would lift its head or decide to go for a swim, but it was pretty content to just sit with its bill tucked into its back. 

We tried for and dipped on Rusty Blackbird at a spot on Staten Island. Next was trying for Purple Sandpiper, which had been reported along artificially placed rocks whose primary purpose appeared to be to prevent beach erosion. Walking up, one was obvious immediately, and eventually we found almost a dozen of these cute little Purple Sandpipers investigating all the wet rocks for tasty morsels, and not minding if they got half-covered in water from a wave in the process. 

I said goodbye to Gabriel, and made my way to a spot that Rusty Blackbird was reported in New Jersey, dipping again not long before sunset. I made my way back to my hotel, and, once again too tired to drive anywhere, walked to the Radisson next door and had dinner at their restaurant. It was the first real meal I'd eaten since dinner in Oregon! 

I walked back to my hotel, went to drop my luggage in my room before returning my rental car, which I'd return within 24 hours and just take the hotel shuttle in the morning - another strategic money-saving tactic. I couldn't get into my room! My key card wasn't accepted, or rejected. No lights came on. It turns out, their maintenance worker had to manually take apart the entire lock in order to get into my room, found that the batteries in the mechanism were dead, and told me they'd have to get me a new room, which wound up taking another fifteen minutes. I still had to return the dang rental car, but I was so exhausted. I got my new room, dropped the car, took the air train to the very other side where the hotel shuttles were, and took the Radisson shuttle since it was the first shuttle I saw, then walked back to my hotel. I packed all my luggage to be ready to fly home in the morning. 

Oh, how I was so ready to be home, to sleep in my own bed, to see my dog, to simply rest. 

Year List: 718