Bada$$ or Dumba$$, You Decide (17May2018)

A relatively light teleconference schedule on Thursday and the prospect of an all weekend soccer tournament over the weekend with no birding was impetus enough to get me going on Wednesday night to drive up to Rockingham County.  My buddy Marty had seen a Barn Owl a week or two ago and with some caveats, he was willing to take me to his honey hole.  I met Marty at some pre-determined coordinates at 5am and after smashing my phone, signing a waiver and applying a blindfold, he took me to the spot.

All it took was 1 second of mouse squeaking playback and the Barn Owl swooped in from a field.  So amazing that it's wings made absolutely no noise as it flew just feet above heads.  Unfortunately it did not stay and never perched where we could see it.  It had rained all night and probably it was trying to get some hunting in so we did not want to disturb it.  Scanning the fields with a spotlight we did get great looks of it gliding but were were not able to get a pic due to low light conditions.

Our second target was a Black-billed Cuckoo pair that Marty has seen and heard several times on the Mayo Tract in the last week.  We did hear the whimpering call a couple times and had good comparison with calling Yellow-billed Cuckoos too, but it never showed and did not call enough that I could get a decent recording.  I bet it is hunkering down and nesting hence reluctance to come out and say hello.

The rain put a bit of a damper on the warblers first thing, but once it stopped raining the activity did pick up.

We had several Blackpolls at eye level which is not something I see much in NC.

We dipped on Gray-cheeked Thrush which was another one Marty has been seeing.  Finally we moved to Piedmont Triad Airport in Greensboro to try for Warbling Vireo and Willow Flycatcher.

Willow Flycatcher!  Fitz Brew!

Warbling Vireo!  I like this shot even though it is out of focus.

I can't believe how much better Marty's pictures were.  Check his eBird Checklist (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S45780212) for his National Geographic quality photo.  I need to use a tripod more.

I parted ways with Marty and thanked him for for sharing his local birds with me.

My next target was in between teleconferences at Baldwin Rd where Dickcissels and Bobolinks have been seen lately.

Dickcissel!  It did not take long to find these very cooperative birds.

A snazzy male.

Eastern Meadowlark

Bobolink - all the ones I saw were females.  Presumably most males are already on territory up north.

Indigo Bunting

Grasshopper Sparrow

I have to say that Guilford and Rockingham Counties are very nice!  My plan was to take several hours of teleconferences while driving home.  However, just as I was leaving at noon I received an email about a super rare bird on the Outerbanks (OBX).  Now this is where my dear reader can decide if I am a Dumbass or a Badass.  The decision I had to make was either stick to my original plan and drive home 3 hours, or go on a chase for a 5 hour drive to Buxton and risk not having enough light left to find the rarity.  If I had Friday off it would have been an easy choice but I had to be home in my chair for work on Friday morning with a full day of teleconferences ahead.  So if I decided to chase the bird, I was looking at about 11 additional hours of driving with the prospect of driving home in the middle of the night.  so that would mean that I would be up for at least 24 hours with no sleep driving on roads lousy with deer.

Some kind of ridiculous intuition kicked in and I set my navigation for the OBX.  The gods were with me and I hit no traffic even at Pea Island where they are doing roadwork on the bridge project.  I arrived at the Buxton Campground at 6pm and drove right up to find Jeff L who was already on the bird!!

Chestnut-collared Longspur!!!  Breeding plumage no less... What a face melter.

This bad boy is the first Chestnut-collared Longspur male in breeding plumage ever photographed in NC.  Thanks to the park staff that found it!

Someone flushed the bird a short distance (there was a bunch of campers in the campground) so I drove around the one way lanes to get back to where it landed.  I was distracted by some other birds.

Black-bellied Plover

Presumed Semipalmated Plover - this plover had me do an immediate double take because it just looked different.  The thing that caught my eye immediately was that it appeared larger than your typical Semi.

Then the white eye-brow took my attention.  Usually in breeding plumage semis don't have a defined eyebrow.  The other thing I noticed was the lack of an orange eye-ring.  I wanted to get some photos of the feet to rule out Common Ringed Plover but the damn Chestnut-collared Longspur was my real target so I moved on.  Now it is nagging me that this was potentially a Common Ringed.  What do you think dear reader?  Probably not..

It continued to feed and was doing fine when I left it for the long drive home.

With the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect in the back of my mind, I was looking for more rarities on my way out.  I actually saw a Bank Swallow fly by and then a Gull-billed Tern and then...

WTF?  Not a Bank or a Barn and not quite good for a normal looking Northern Rough-winged.  If I didn't know better I would have said Southern Rough-winged.  Jeff L got some pics too.  Probably will go as a weird plumage Northern Rough-winged.

I made it half way home but at midnight started falling asleep so I pulled into a rest stop and passed out for 2 hours.  I finally made it home at 3:30 am!  A full 24 hours since I woke up to meet Marty.  I am going with Badass!  If I dipped on the Longspur I would have certainly been a Dumbass.  Maybe I am something in between.

By the way, the Longspur was not seen again on Friday as far as I can tell, so I am glad my birding intuition was strong.