Yesterday I was sitting at my computer editing photos from Mason Park when my old roomate Matt told me that an Arctic Warbler had just been seen in Kern County. Because it would be a lifer, I desperately wanted to chase it, but I didn't want to drive out to the desert by myself, especially since my car is a little too far past its scheduled oil change.
I was able to catch a ride with a young birder from Riverside. We drove for 3 hours, hoping that it would be there and that we could see it and get home in one night. When we finally got there, we saw a crowd of birders watching it and ran over to see it. The bird was foraging completely oblivious to our camera clicks and coming so close we could almost have touched it. We watched it making circles around the cottonwoods, and then finally got back on the road towards home.
Ironically, we were discussing how the bird probably didn't show up all by itself, and lo and behold today we hear that there are actually TWO Arctic Warblers at Galileo!
I'm actually a little disappointed with how my photos came out, they just don't do the bird or the views we got of it justice... maybe it's time to buy a new lens... ;)
2 comments:
Congrats on the successful chase, Leigh! And one can never have too many camera lenses (c:
That is completely amazing! What good fortune! I'm suprised that the warbler continued to be oblivious to the gathering it had caused!
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