BIRDQUEST2004

I’d heard about this Red-billed Tropicbird from various sources over the past 10 years and had always planned on driving down to Vinalhaven, Maine.  Work and schedules always seemed to get in the way, but that all changed this year.  I retired.

I called John Drury to see if he had any groups going out that had room for one more person to share costs with and he told me there was an opening on June 23rd.

John Drury       E-Mail: johnbdrury@gmail.com
P.O. Box 267
Vinalhaven, ME 04863

Phone: (207) 596-1841 (Green’s Island) April-November, phone service is not great on these islands, some patience may be useful

Phone: (207) 863-4962 (Vinalhaven) December- March

I left home Friday and drove cross country to Rockland, Maine (765kms) with our mishap and parked at the Penobscott Air Services Office for my 7am flight to Vinalhaven.

Lobster fishing is the main industry in town and they had some beauties, Sue and I will go back some day.

When you need wheels for any emergency, you can’t beat a Jeep.

I spent a great day roaming the streets and chatting with many of the friendly locals, enjoying the sights.

At 2pm I met up with John Drury at the public dock and was introduced to my fellow group members Susan Playfair, Tammy and David McQuade.

It was an balmy 55 degrees out on the water, overcast but the seas were calm, we steamed the roughly 17km to Seal Island, and waited for the Tropicbird to come out of its den.

In the past it generally comes out of its den, at between 3:30pm – 5:30pm, come’s out to the water and takes a bath, flies a bit around the island, harasses the terns, and then leaves to feed at sea, returning early the next morning.

We waited hoping that the tropicbird would stay true to its schedule.

I had been shooting with my 300mm lens and 1.4 teleconverter and decided that the converter had to go. I had just finished putting my converter in my camera bag when Tammy called out “It just came out of its hole”, it was 3:42pm.  The Tropicbird did not disappoint, it put on a great show.

We had a great 1/2 hour with this lovely bird and took a tour of the island enjoying the sights.

Arctic Tern

Atlantic Puffin

Black Guillimot

2nd Cycle Bonaparte’s Gull

Common Eider

Great Cormorant on the Nest

Razorbill

A note about Penobscot Air Service, they offer flights to and from the island. They treated me exceptionally well and if I go back I’ll use there services again.  Below is a link to their website.

http://www.penobscotislandair.net

A great new bird, new friends and something I’ll remember for life.

Ciao for now.

 

 

 

 

Ever since I heard about this bird, I’d been itching to go see it.

I hadn’t chased many birds in the last few months and having just retired from my job of 31 years.   I hadn’t really had much of an urge to do anything it seemed lately but try to get use to the idea that I was retired.

I put out a message on Facebook to see if anyone wanted to go with me and well lets say the responses were limited, which I can understand with Christmas just around the corner.

Also I didn’t really have any car, my Jeep was giving me problems and after having check Enterprise, Discount, Avis and Budget in Bells Corners, found that no cars were available.

Sam offered me his car and I decided to go for it Wednesday night, it would be a crazy chase.  Twenty-two hours of driving, round trip in the winter in northern Quebec and New Brunswick.

Having dinner at my mother-in-laws, as we always do on Wednesday.  Sam (not at all a birder) offered to go with me to keep me company and share in the driving.  Man was I elated….I will never forget he did that for me, and knowing what seeing that bird meant to me.

So off we went at 9pm, camera and warm gear in hand and drove 1,020 kms arriving at 473 Manny Drive the next morning at 9:30am.

The bird had been seen earlier but was not there now,  more and more people started arriving and as if on cue so did the Mistle Thrush.  This is as far as I’ve heard the first record of this bird in the ABA area.

It really never came into the open, there was always a branch in front of it and after an hour of waiting, an talking with friends, I decided that it was time to head back.

We stopped at Tim’s, grabbed a coffee and hit the road.  Driving home the weather didn’t make it easy, blowing snow for 200 km slowed us down a bit but we were home by 11:30pm.

2,170 km, 26 1/2 hours, great time with Sam, lovely new ABA bird.

Merry Christmas all

Paul Lgasi