Desires vs Reality

We all want to see cool birds. The desire to see uncommon and sometimes lifer species is a common thing in the birding community. Sometimes, however, we take this desire and turn it into reality. Every birder goes through his or her ambitious stage where no bird can go unchecked as a rarity. And I don't mean digging through a flock of Common Goldeneye in hopes of a Barrow's Goldeneye. I mean taking a bird you see or hear and jumping right to the rarity. I'll give you an example. When I was a kid, my mom told me she heard a flat whistle song in our yard. Before thinking of the common birds, I jumped to a Harris's Sparrow, which is a vagrant to NJ. Well, it turned out to be the very common White-throated Sparrow. I've had more instances like this, but again, more stories for another day. Anyways, if you look on eBird to see which species won't be flagged as rare, you'll often find some pretty rare species that there's a fat chance of seeing. In Cape May, Golden Eagle is not flagged as rare, but that doesn't mean you're going to see it. In descriptions of places like hawk watches and nature preserves, a list of species seen there is often provided. I always get a kick out of reading the lists because I see the most unusual species which have likely only been recorded once or twice there. Yet, people have actually asked me in the field, "have you seen (insert laughably rare bird here) today?" I just say "not today," knowing that trying to explain the whole thing to them will be difficult. I remember one man who went to my local nature preserve looking for a Purple Gallinule. This bird was seen there some years ago and stuck around awhile, but has never been recorded since. That was the only exception, and I explained that it had only been recorded here once. He was upset, however his spirits were lifted when we saw a handsome male Philadelphia Vireo, which certainly made my day as well.

The point here is, just go out and see what you can find. Don't ever assume you're going to find something, because then you'll end up like me a few years ago convincing yourself that's what you had. It's great to find a rarity, in fact I can't think of any better feeling in birding than discovering a vagrant, but I for one will take a day full of good birds over just one uncommon to rare species.  

Happy birding! And feel free to comment on what you want me to post about, I'm always open to ideas. 

- Mike

I did end up seeing a Harris's Sparrow (photo above)

a couple of years after my little ambitious accusation

at a feeder in Pennsylvania.