birdsoup

Northern Wheatear

I received an email and phone call within 15 minutes.  Both brought news that a N. Wheatear was just seen at the boat ramp near the Croton train station.  A Wheatear is small thrush-like bird, about the size of a bluebird, normally found far north (Northern Canada, Greenland, Alaska).  It winters in Europe.  It has been seen in Westchester less than 5 times in the last 20 years.  I debated whether I should rush to see it.  I have never seen one and the station was only a 20 minute drive.  But we were still feeling the after effects of the hurricane and it was raining.   Normally I am  a fair-weather birder staying inside in bad weather.  However, today I made the trip and was rewarded.  Didn’t even have to get out of the car.  It was that easy.  It took 15 seconds to find the bird.  I pulled into the parking area and there it was sitting on the chainlink fence directly in front of my car.  Easiest Life Bird I ever had.  It sat on the fence for about a minute and then flew off somewhere.

It some ways that was not a totally satisfying sighting.    But it was a life bird for me, so I count it.

The weather was better the next day, so I went again hoping for a better experience.  This there were almost two dozen birders there.  Somehow people came from as far as Long Island and New Jersey even though the parkways were still flooded and impassable.  A Merlin zipped by, so we did not get a good close-up look.  The Wheatear move further away.  But thanks to many alert eyes looking for it, we soon found it about 200 yards away.  Birders with scopes zeroed in and everyone got a good long look.  I feel better now adding it to my Life List.