Great Skua Attempt

Dec 27 

The first day I was scheduled to fly to Norfolk, Virginia, and then drive down to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina for a winter pelagic in hopes of Great Skua. However, the night before, I received an email stating that the pelagic had been moved from December 29th, to the weather date of December 30th, due to rough seas. I moved my flight from the 28th to the 29th. 

Dec 28

I received a call that the pelagic for the 30th had been cancelled, but that if there was enough interest, a trip would run on December 31st. I committed to the trip, and changed my return flight from the 31st to January 1st. It was too expensive to change my flight out from the 29th to the 30th, so I'd fly on the 29th and spend an extra night in a hotel. 

Dec 29 

I happened to wake up at 3 am, and checked my phone, finding a notification that my 9 am flight was delayed to 11 am...causing me to miss my connecting flight, and they'd rescheduled me for a flight that got in to Norfolk around midnight. BUT they offered the opportunity to change to a flight the following day free of charge. BINGO! It was the best case scenario given the situation - I'd eliminated the need for a hotel and rental car for an extra day. 

Dec 30 

I flew out at 6 am, with a three plane itinerary - McAllen to Dallas, Dallas to Charlotte, Charlotte to Norfolk. I'd recently reached Platinum status with American Airlines, and had free upgrades to first class on all three flights. How early in the day is too early to ask for free red wine?!? 

McAllen to Dallas went smoothly, Dallas to Charlotte went smoothly, Charlotte to Norfolk went -- well, we got halfway through the 45 minute flight, and the captain announced that visibility in Norfolk was 1/8 mile, and they needed 1/2 mile to land...and that we had enough fuel to circle the airport for a bit, but if it didn't clear in time, we would need to head back to Charlotte, and all get booked for different flights later in the day. Three minutes later, he got back on and announced that the Norfolk Airport had advised us to turn around. Lots of groaning on the plane. The woman next to me openly announced she was switching to alcohol, and ordered another drink. The captain went on to say that no planes had landed in Norfolk since 9 am, which made a lot of us wonder why we had even left the ground in Charlotte. It was already going to be 3 pm, and I had no idea how late I'd get to Norfolk, with a three hour drive to go still to get to Hatteras. 

Three more minutes went by, and the captain got back on the speaker...announcing that we are indeed landing in Norfolk! In another 15 minutes, we touched down, and the fog was so thick that the flight attendants had to run to their jump seats as the ground suddenly appeared beneath us. 

I was in the first row, and wound up being the very first person off the plane. The staff in the airport let us know that, in fact, we were the only plane that has landed all day. It was 3:03 pm. I was grateful to have landed. 

Jessica had decided in the morning that she would come down for the pelagic, and she picked me up form the airport around 4 pm, and we drove the three hours to Hatteras. I'd found a shockingly nice room at the Breakwater Hotel for the price tag for $59 per night after taxes. But first, we met up with Matt and Jamie for dinner. 

They both did a North Carolina big year, with Matt breaking the record. They stayed at the same hotel as us, after hearing of the amazing rate, and they introduced Jessica and I to Wingspan, before we passed out on seasickness meds around 10 pm. 

Dec 31 

5:15 am came early, as we dragged ourselves out of bed, with only a one mile drive to the harbor. After the standard orientation, we were on our way. I was so tired - so ready to be done with the year. These last few weeks chasing individual birds by plane have been incredibly exhausting and much less fun than the weeks-long road trips I'd been doing much of the year. 

I'm pretty sure I had my eyes closed for half of the boat trip. I simply couldn't stay awake - there was nothing to look at the majority of the time. One Manx Shearwater, one Black-capped Petrel, and twenty-some Red Phalaropes were the only birds aside from Northern Gannets and gulls. We returned to land around 4 pm. 

Well, I can't say I didn't try, up until the very last day! After a dinner with Jessica, Matt, and Haley, Jessica and I made our way north to Norfolk for the night, passing out right after we got to our hotel by the airport. I'd fly home the next morning, on my 76th and 77th airplanes of the year. 

Final Year List: 726 (breaking the previous record by two species)