The 3.5 hour bird

People often ask me if I'm a birder and I always reply "no, I'm a photographer who happens to enjoy photographing birds along with other wildlife".  When I got back from Costa Rica, my birder friends wanted to know how many new "life birds" I got and I couldn't tell them until I'd looked back and tried to do a count.  But I could tell them how many photos I took.  There's another distinction and that is that I will spend hours (as several of you can personally attest) shooting in one location, sometimes even shooting the same bird.  If I were a true birder, I'd check the birds off my list and head to the next location.  Not so say that one is any better than the other, just clarifying which one I am.

And you are now asking yourself (if you are still even with me at this point) what they heck I'm blathering on about.  Well, it has to do with this little bird who has been causing quite a stir in the birding (and photographer) community since it first showed up last Saturday.  This is a Boreal Chickadee and the last time one of his kind was recorded in New Jersey was 1981.  Yep, 38 years ago.  And I decided today that I was going to "chase" a rare bird for the first time in my life.  So I drove 50 minutes each way and stayed in the location for roughly two hours all to take photos of this rather unremarkable looking little bird.  But, I have to tell you, it was pretty exciting to see it.  The setup for photos was pretty awful with feeders everywhere but at least the light was pretty good.  One additional shot in Extra.

So I have submitted my ebird report - which I diligently do since I am a big supporter of citizen science projects.  And now, if anyone ever asks me if I've seen a Boreal Chickadee I can look at my ebird report and reply in the affirmative.

Skipped the gym today since I was gone so long and still had some errands to do. 

By the way, KangaZu blipped this little bird yesterday.  Do check out her shots as they are excellent.

Cheers,
Debbi