Aug 19, 2014

Lifebird #556 - Scrabbling for One More

Joann and I added a whole slew of new birds to our life lists during a visit to Costa Rica in January of this year. Then, that same month, we added a Snowy Owl right here in the Twin Cities. I thought there was a chance that would be my last lifer. If it had been, I would have been content with getting what had been a “nemesis bird” and reaching the aesthetically pleasing number 555.

As it turns out, despite my inability to use binoculars, I wasn’t quite done.

(The photograph featured here was taken by Sharilyn Thompson and posted on Facebook. This is very likely a photo of the same individual we saw. Please click on the image for more.)

A Least Bittern turned up at the Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield and was reported on the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union (MOU) mailing list at least a couple of weeks ago. These birds aren’t exactly rarities in Minnesota, but mostly because of this species’ secretive ways, one is always a “good find” and worthy of attention. When one is found in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, even better!

Despite its being a species we “needed,” for two weeks Joann and I didn’t make any effort to go see it. Until fate intervened. On Tuesday we planned to make a very rare appearance at my Scrabble club. Joann would go along to draw and play tiles for me. But we got a late start and it was clear we would not be there in time for the 6:00 PM round. Wood Lake is about two miles from the club, so I suggested we take a quick look around it for the bird and get to the club in time for the 7:00 PM round.

This was a long shot. We didn’t have any information about where exactly the bird had been seen and it’s a big nature preserve. But we were lucky to come across a trail walker who was able to tell us where to look, and just a few minutes after finding that spot, there the bird was. Joann found it in her binoculars and then put up the scope for me. I rolled up in my wheelchair and got an eyeful of life bird #556! (Not that it was out in the open. Bittern’s are shy birds. The look we got of the it was almost exactly the same one represented in the photograph above.)