Chasing Rarities

In my November 19 column for Ask a Birder, I wrote about bird vagrancy. I discussed birds showing up in areas where they don’t normally appear. As another birder once commented to me, they are geographically challenged. When a bird shows up like that, everyone wants to see it. I’m going to share my stories about chasing rarities in this past month of November.

My bird buddy, Theresa, always is looking for good birds to see or rarities to chase. She always lets me know about interesting sightings. At the beginning of the month, she called me about a Razorbill, which was seen near the Toronto waterfront. (Razorbills are normally seen in the North Atlantic.) This bird was very cooperative. It spent the majority of its time in one of the shipping channels. It would dive and then pop up by the channel’s edge, where its admiring fans were snapping photographs of it. I even managed to get a poor photograph with my cell phone, for my records.

Razorbill

Bohemian Waxwings appear unpredictably in our area, in winter. (They usually winter in the prairies and the Rocky Mountains, but they will wander farther afield.) One will usually be seen among a flock of over-wintering Cedar Waxwings. On a lovely November day, we were driving in the Rouge Park area on the east side of Toronto. The weather was perfect, but the birds were sparse and there were only the usual species we see at this time of year. Another group of birders visited a spot we recommended and had already birded that day. They texted us with the news that two Bohemian Waxwings were with a large flock of Cedar Waxwings. We rushed to the spot. The challenge was to find the two Bohemian Waxwings. We discovered one and then noticed a second, perched close by. The birders with cameras captured some great shots, especially since the afternoon sunlight was shining on them. It was exciting for one young birder, who had joined us. He told me they were lifers for him.

Bohemian Waxwing

While admiring the waxwings, another birder mentioned to us a great bird, which was being seen east of us. An immature Harris’s Sparrow (pictured at top of article) was hanging out with other sparrows at a conservation area. (This bird winters on the southern plains in the US. Strays will show up with flocks of other sparrows.) Local birders were keeping it there, by tossing birdseed on the ground. Rosanne, another birding friend, and I drove over to the conservation area. We were eager to see the bird as it would be a lifer for both of us. We looked for other birders and found them by a tangle of bushes. The bird had been seen recently, but wasn’t present when we got there. They told us it would go away, but then returned shortly afterwards. As the minutes passed, I was getting nervous, because my husband needed to get home for an appointment. Just before we had to leave, the bird popped out of the bushes and landed on the strewn seeds. We had good views of it and Rosanne was able to get some great photographs.

It is always exciting to see rare birds, especially if they are lifers. What is even better is when the birds are in the spot you were told where to see them.

Note: All photos are courtesy of Rosanne Petrich.