One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

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chrish
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One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by chrish »

The Texas Birds Records Committee has decided that the Tropical Mockingbird seen by MANY in east Texas last spring is of questionable origin (i.e. probably an escaped cage bird) and is not going to be accepted as part of the Texas avifauna.

So "officially" people drove/flew across the country to see a bird that probably was an escaped pet.

http://texasbirds.org/tbrc/tropmockt.html

Let the hate mail begin to the TBRC!
I don't know what the ABA decided about this record.
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Andy Avram
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by Andy Avram »

Oh man! That would suck, but I am with you on not chasing rarities - very often. To be honest, I hate chasing birds. It really feels like wasted, worthless effort when you miss and when you get the bird it is never as satisfying as finding them yourself (or seeing them in their native habitat). Now saying that, in 2010 when I realized I had 1 life bird for the whole year I started concentrating on what birds are typically found in Ohio that I haven't seen. Came up with a list of 40+ birds - I have about 10 left to go now. Most of them have been chased, mainly within a my county or an adjacent (~40 mile radius). I still don't have a desire to get on a plane and fly across the country to see any bird, but I would do it to see some birds in their native habitat (not too mention the other wildlife I would be able to find) - I am thinking some of the ducks/geese in Alaska.

I have thought about it a lot, since I will travel hours to go find a herp, but not a rare bird. I think I have come to the conclusion that I will "chase" habitats, which is really what we do when we go herping, but not inclined to chase individual birds (to a point).

Andy
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Owen
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by Owen »

So, how would you count a California Condor? Of the current 219 wild birds, only 32 were fledged in the wild.
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by monklet »

California Condor is not yet countable since reintroduction ...yet ;-) BUT, I have it on a former yard list on which I DON'T count house sparrow, rock pigeon and starling. Fair trade I say.

It's ironic that while most birders are environmentally concerned they'll drive hundreds of miles to see a bird they've seen before just to add it to some county list :lol: That's why I only do my home county for serious listing because I know otherwise I'd be compelled to make those long trips, and I hate driving. It's so freakin' boring. Don't get me wrong though, chasing is a really fun game and I love the crazy stories of hits and misses that it generates.

And don't confuse "chasing" with traveling to bird, like Chris, who must be one heck of a traveler. I envy that kind of experience which provides much more adventure than just a tick mark on a checklist.
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Andy Avram
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by Andy Avram »

Owen wrote:So, how would you count a California Condor? Of the current 219 wild birds, only 32 were fledged in the wild.
I would count California Condor - it is the only exception since there really is no other alternative to seeing the condors (I might give the same for Whooping Cranes, but I saw mine in Aransas, so it is a moot point for me). But I really am not submitting my list to anyone or strictly following ABA rules, but I do like learning other peoples rules or criteria for what they will put on their lists.
monklet wrote:And don't confuse "chasing" with traveling to bird, like Chris, who must be one heck of a traveler. I envy that kind of experience which provides much more adventure than just a tick mark on a checklist.


Exactly, but one day I will like to finish off the ABA Anatidae family (breeders, or yearly wintering birds only), so regardless of what additional wildlife it could net me I would make a special trip to just see a Emporer Goose, Speckled or Steller's Eider, even if I had no potential to see other species, but again chasing them in their habitat.
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chrish
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by chrish »

I just looked at the latest ABA checklist (Dec 2012) and it does NOT list the Tropical Mockingbird, so I wonder if this means the ABA won't accept it either?

As for the issues brought up....

A California Condor sighting from the Grand Canyon is a tough call because they aren't the descendants of a naturally occurring, wild population, but they are the only extant population. I guess I might have to "count" it because it is the only place on earth you can see them. I would have to hold my nose as I added to my birdlist.

But I wouldn't count a Whooping Crane in Florida or formerly in New Mexico as a lifer (...although I do have species on my NM birdlist. :oops:). I wouldn't have to because Whooping Cranes don't need to be "chased". You simply go to Aransas in the winter and you say, "Look, a Whooping Crane that descended from wild stock!"

All that said, I did count this bird on my US list. I had seen it before in Mexico, so it really wasn't a lifer, which makes it more palatable.

Image



I guess my original wording was a bit misleading as well. It isn't really about chasing "rarities", it is about chasing "vagrants".

I did see the first US record of Flame-colored Tanager in 1985 because I happened to be camping in the Chiricahuas when it was found. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered. We were on an ornithology field trip and we happened to walk up into Cave Creek Canyon where it was being seen. That was my first introduction to bird chasers. There were many dozens of birders with big lenses all up and down the canyon. We ran into a guy with a mega lens who told us he had been there 2 days and had spent 9 hours there so far today but finally got it. He was pretty excited. His excitement waned however when one of the non-birder kids in our class pointed straight up as we were talking to the guy and said "Hey, what's this pretty orange bird?".....You guessed it,..Flame-colored Tanager. The bird-a-holic wasn't very happy with us neophyte birder punks. :lol:

I did drive 5 hours to see a Gyrfalcon in Texas, and I drove even further to see a Snowy Owl in Oklahoma, but those are very cool birds whose habitats I rarely visit. If a Boreal or Northern Hawk Owl shows within a few hours of me and I have time, I will absolutely make the drive. Same goes for any species of Sheathbill that shows up on the Texas coast. ;)

A stupid Tropical Mockingbird is neither cool nor hard to see if you get into its very wide range. I feel the same way about Fork-tailed Flycatchers and have never chased one in spite of a dozen or more that have been seen within 2 hours of me....although they are pretty cool.
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by monklet »

chrish wrote:A California Condor sighting from the Grand Canyon is a tough call because they aren't the descendants of a naturally occurring, wild population, but they are the only extant population. I guess I might have to "count" it because it is the only place on earth you can see them. I would have to hold my nose as I added to my birdlist.
Good point about source of reestablished population not being of local historic descendants, but confused by "it [Grand Canyon] is the only place on earth you can see them [California Condor]"?

Good point also about "rarities" vs. "vagrants", although of course those can overlap.
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chrish
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by chrish »

monklet wrote:
chrish wrote:A California Condor sighting from the Grand Canyon is a tough call because they aren't the descendants of a naturally occurring, wild population, but they are the only extant population. I guess I might have to "count" it because it is the only place on earth you can see them. I would have to hold my nose as I added to my birdlist.
Good point about source of reestablished population not being of local historic descendants, but confused by "it [Grand Canyon] is the only place on earth you can see them [California Condor]"?
My mistake. I was of the opinion that was the only population that has been reestablished after they removed all the adults from the wild. I didn't know they had introduced other populations.
I guess I should say the only California Condors you can see in the wild are these reintroduced birds, so you do still have to count these if you ever want this bird on your list.
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by monklet »

Ahaa! ...There are 2 release/reintroduction sites of historic populations in CA, in the Big Sur area of central coastal CA and in the Sespe drainage in Ventura Co., CA (my home). I also recall there being one in Mexico, somewhere in Baja as I vaguely recall.

Being a highly active local birder some years back , I've had the pleasure of associating in various capacities with some of the key players on the F&W team, some who were the original reintroduction "catch & release" guys who sat in pit traps waiting to grab the feet of a Condor lured in bird. It was brutal work but they had some great stories. Those guys developed awe and respect during their very personal experience with the birds. They're apparently very wary and intelligent (although you have to wonder as the tend to bring their chicks every manner of unpalatable artifacts). Even got to see a nest this year, complete with nestling, which unfortunately was reticent and barely discernible. I used to follow it very closely but all I know now is that the reintroduction seems to be on track toward a potentially viable self-sustaining population. At this time though they are of course closely managed and certainly not quite there yet.

California recently imposed stricter regulations on lead bullets for hunting of larger game. Gut piles from deer etc. dressed by hunters are a major source of lead poisoning for the Condors, as well as other wildlife.
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by Owen »

I got my numbers from the 10-31-2013 population status:
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/nongame/ ... Report.pdf

I've seen them at the Pinnacles. We had 4 show up at Lick Observatory (Mt. Hamilton) from the Big Sur population. Cool birds.
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by monklet »

Thanks for the link Owen.

Forgot to add that, the last birds captured from the field for reintroduction were from Sespe (SoCal) population, but I don't know what the genetic heritage of those other reintroductions is. Of course they would probably go for the highest diversity they can get in any reintroduced populations. Another point of interest would be to what degree the various populations integrate. I'll try to remember to ask that very important question if I have the opportunity.
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by nightdriver »

I think the ABA will only review if the State accepts the record.

I love to chase. I'll chase a "lifer" ABA bird if it's within a days drive....and I have time. Of course the closer the better. I never look at anything as being a waste if I miss the bird. I look at it as an opportunity to get out and bird an area I may not have birded before. I chased, and missed, :? a Bohemian Waxwing a couple weeks ago. Best day I'd had in months.

I look at chasing birds as an opportunity to see something that I will likely never have the opportunity to see again. As a beginning birder, something like a Brown shrike was a bird that was a strange and mysterious thing that lived thousands of miles away. Now it's a fond memory of driving up to Northern California and seeing a magnificent Asian visitor :beer:

What anybody chooses to count on their personal list is their choice. Pretty simple. Humans are a competitive species, so some choose to count birds, some race cars, some collect stamps, some even go crazy at football games. The exceptions are when you wish to compare, share, brag about your list with others. Then there are "rules" just like any game.

I choose not to count birds I haven't seen :)

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chrish
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by chrish »

Yet another reason I dont chase birds.

Today I did. There was a Slaty-backed Gull found last week at Lake Casa Blanca in Laredo, Texas. This would be a lifer for me. But I decided not to go on Friday since it is 160 miles each way to Laredo. I did consider on Friday since the highs were in the 90s and I might be able to run a few quiet roads on the way home, but I changed my mind. The bird was of course seen by many on Friday.

This morning, I decided I probably wasn't going to chase it. Then I saw a report on Texbirds of another birder I know from San Antonio seeing it this morning and getting photos. That's it! I jumped in the car as soon as I could and drove the 2.5 hours southwest. When I arrived at 4:30, several other birders were staked out at its favorite haunt. No bird. I went over to another region of the lake where there were a lot of gulls milling about. No Slaty-backed. I returned to the "designated viewing spot" at around 5 and stayed until almost 40 minutes after dark when all the Ring-billed Gulls started to look dark backed in the dwindling light. I considered staying the night down there and looking again in the morning, but that just sounded like another way to spend more money to see nothing so I drove home. I arrived home at 11:00pm drained (after getting up at 6:00 to watch the hockey this morning!).

So I drove for over 5 hours, spent somewhere around $100 and I still have the same number of birds on my birdlist that I did when I got up this morning. And of course, I know that tomorrow morning the @#$@##$% gull will be back on its normal perch for all the birders who stayed the night down there.

Here's what it looked like as I left. The sun had set almost 30 minutes earlier and it was too dark to see anything really, but still we stood....waiting...hoping.....failing! God we birders are pathetic sometimes.

Image

Oh...and I did try and roadhunt a bit on the way back home. It was about 72° when I got to a road I liked and well after dark. The full moon was shining bright, of course. I saw nothing, zippo, nada. Of course, what did I expect? It is mid-February and it hasn't rained appreciably in this area since the Pleistocene....ok, maybe not that long, but this area has received less than 1/10th of an inch of rain since November. It is tinder dry.
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by Andy Avram »

Chris, I hear your whining but all I can think about is that it is going to get down to 3 degrees again tonight (this has been our coldest winter in decades) and you are posting pictures of people birding at night while wearing shorts!

In all seriousness though, I may have gone after that gull if I were you. Just saw Iceland and Lesser Black-backed today.
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by chrish »

Andy Avram wrote:Chris, I hear your whining but all I can think about is that it is going to get down to 3 degrees again tonight (this has been our coldest winter in decades) and you are posting pictures of people birding at night while wearing shorts!

In all seriousness though, I may have gone after that gull if I were you. Just saw Iceland and Lesser Black-backed today.
Iceland is a dream bird for us southerners. It just won't happen. Lesser Black-backed is actually an easy get in the winter here which is surprising since it wasn't that way 20 years ago.

Oh....and it was 80 degrees here again today. But the "best" news for me was that no one else saw that stinkin' Slaty-backed Gull today either! Sour grapes, I know. :?
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Re: One of the reasons I don't chase rarities....very often

Post by cbernz »

Several years ago, I took my future wife up to Piermont, a little town on the Hudson not far north of NYC, to see her first Snowy Owl. The bird was sitting on some pilings, or part of an old pier or something, and she got some decent looks. There were several other birders there, looking at the owl and scanning the waterfowl. Later that night, after I got home, my friend called me and asked if I'm planning to go to Piermont in the morning. I told him that I was just there and got good looks at the owl. He said no, was I going to look for the Ivory Gull? I told him I had no idea about any Ivory Gull, and that nobody was reporting it when I was there. Apparently, an Ivory Gull had shown up about an hour after I left.

Great timing, I thought. The next couple days I was busy and couldn't make it, but I did finally make the trip, heading up before work on a snowy morning. It was a real pain to get to Piermont because the whole town is downhill from the Palisades, and I had to navigate winding, narrow, snow-choked roads to get to the pier. When I got out on the pier, there were 20 or 30 birders milling around talking to each other (never a good sign on a chase). The bird was there that morning, they said, then about an hour before I got there it got up and flew upriver and out of sight. Some people went prospecting upriver hoping to refind it, but as far as I know the bird wasn't seen again.

As it happens, I was in Massachusetts a year or two later when that adult Ivory Gull was hanging out in a parking lot eating supermarket chickens. Easiest lifer I've ever gotten. It was like going to a zoo exhibit without a cage.
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