Scissors

First....the image above was beautifully shot by Howie Williams so I want to give credit due to those whom I borrow images from for this site. Thanks Howie...

Now....these past couple of weeks have simply been non-birding weeks for me....too much work and as of late, Thanksgiving and NYC and grandsons and daughters and son-in-laws etc.... But fun to say, although not birding.

Yesterday as I drove back from NYC,...egads...a country boy like me driving in NYC .... (Do you remember that commercial a few years back where they were advertising their competitors to have had their Picante sauce  made in New York City? I have to laugh now every time I am in NYC as that commercial just rings a bell to me,...me, a country lad in NYC). Well I made my mind up to do some birding and Saturday was beautiful outside...in the 60's. So, on Sunday, I was going out birding.

I woke up to rain,...and weather in the 40's. Wherever I was going was not going to be far. So I looked on my e-bird email and there must have been 15 sightings of this Scissor-tailed birdie around the Experimental Pond. That was a strong temptation to venture just down the road a bit. 

I arrived at Forsythe with the intention of doing some birding and making it back to watch the Seahawk game on TV, as any true Northwesterner would do.  I did the usual drive with little to show for it since it was high tide and I must admit, I had a purpose here. Scissor-tails. Now, this ain't west Texas and they are not abound on a grand scale. Scissor-tails are about as abundant down there on wires as Savannahs are here in the reeds along the drive. What was this Scissor-tailed doing here anyhow? How does a bird get 'that lost'? I know they have been here in Jersey-land prior, such as in last year I believe, and the year before. Is this the same one that shows up each year? Come on man, get a life bird, figure it out.

Now, along the drive, I did stop--attempting to ID some Cackling Goose from Canada, but nada...they looked to be the same. Although one goose had my eye as the black in the neck went deep down, almost covered by water.

 After heading out on the last stretch and into the woods, past Jen's trail and inward to the turn-off to Experimental Pond, I found where all of the cars and people were. Right here..... down the road there must have been a dozen folks, strewn up and down...some with bins glued to their eyeballs,  some not, some with hands in pocket and others milling around like they were at a bar, minus any beers...nere that I could tell.  

Being cold outside....I slid my car to the side of the road and just watched. If they weren't finding any with 24 eyeballs, ....what more would my two eyeballs make and besides, it was cold......   And I had no gloves. I need to get some of those gloves, you know, the kind with just the tips of my fingers exposed. Anyhow....I waited, they walked. I waited and watched them walk. Waited and Watched... Somewhat reluctantly after 15 minutes of playing that game, I pulled myself from the car, put on my warm jacket and met up with the 12. 

I poked around like I was there as long as they were, or pretended to be. Some of those folks were there for upwards of 2-3 hours, all the time peering out looking for that elusive scissor-tail which was reported on e-bird 15x just yesterday, and those were the ones that merely 'reported' it!...Today...nothing. None the less, I felt like I was part of the group even though I stole no more than a moment or two, just to pretend I was 'one of them," I was 'one of the clique'... . 

Now, while I have not seen a scissor-tailed here in Jersey land, I have seen em, so I was not all that excited about missing my Seahawk game, ...which meant I moved on. So on Monday when I receive my e-bird report, I will just have to see if they were successful and if so, I can always return. But hey Howie saw it so that is somewhat good enough for me at the moment.