When Birding isn't fun

 

Sue's photo of yesterday's Royal Tern

   Truth be told, I haven't birded that much since the spring. While I spent almost everyday during the first three weeks of May birding (went to Mia eight days in a row) since then I haven't birded much. The last week of May I went to New Hampshire fishing for Smallmouth and trout. When I got back I participated in my first BioBlitz which was amazing. I got four lifer vertebrates and made new friends.

   Despite the lack of birding, I've still been spending a lot of time in nature. Since BioBlitz, I've went back to New Hampshire trying for Smallmouth Bass and Mourning Warblers. However, what has been taking up most of my time has been herping. I've been looking for reptiles and amphibians every chance I get. One of the days that Trustom was closed I saw my lifer Eastern Musk Turtle in Wakefield. Last Saturday I went to Connecticut and saw Copperheads with Charles Avenengo and Laurie, also a lifer. Even when I'm not chasing lifers, my local evening nature walks have my eyes glued to the ground looking for snakes, frogs, and toads. It has been rewarding.

   However, since I usually herp alone, I miss my birding friends. So, birding has really been a social activity for me this year. When I've actually spent time in the field looking up instead of down, it is with other people. I really haven't cared about what birds I saw as much as I cared about hanging out. Even still, I haven't seen my birding friends nearly as much as I've liked.

   Despite telling you I don't care what I've seen, there has been one bird driving me bananas and that is Royal Tern. Royal Terns are a large tern species. They are a bird that lives south of us but usually one or two will be spotted in Rhode Island each year. The problem with them is they usually don't stick around long. If one is spotted at the Charlestown Breachway while you are at work, it is almost pointless to chase it after work. They usually fly within a few minutes of being seen and many sightings are just flyovers anyway. 

 

Royal Tern's, Sanibel Island, FL

    A Royal Tern in Rhode Island has been the bane of my existence over the last half decade. I have chased this bird so many times and have come up short each time. There have been other times when one will show up on the only day I have plans during the week and I can't go. My birding stories of missing this bird go back years and each of those years has at least one disappointment.  To make things worse, I'm only chasing a state bird. It isn't a lifer for me as I've seen them in New Jersey, Delaware, and Florida. I'll put it this way, when one is reported, my reaction is roughly the same as when driving and after turning a corner you see an unexpected traffic jam. I tilt my head back and say the words that WTF stand for!

   This year alone has been torturing me. My friend Barbara Seith seems to be a Royal Tern magnet this year. She has seen them on multiple occasions. A few weeks ago she found one (or some, I don't remember the exact number) at Quonny. It just so happened that I had plans that day and I couldn't go chase. And as I said, chasing them is risky because they fly off most of the time anyway. Well, for the first time in my birding memory, the Royal Tern stayed at Quonny all day! If you were willing to stay for two hours, at some point they (it?) made an appearance. I was being tortured by reports as late as 8 pm.

   The following day, Barbara again finds terns. This time there were two at Brenton Point. I read the report and I'm in my car in five minutes. It is an hour and twenty minute drive but I don't care. By the time I got there the Royals were gone. I walked the shoreline for the next two and a half hours but they never reappeared. Stories like this have happened over and over again.

   I won't bore you with every dip over every year but one from a few years back at Napatree may be the worst. I was out there with Jan StJean and Sue Palmer. We walked around the lagoon and looked at birds in the rack. When it was time to leave I just walked across the channel. Jan and Sue walked all the way around the lagoon. I thought it was fun to photograph a friendly Semipalmated Plover while I waited for them. That was until they told me they had a Royal Tern flyover near the point. I said "of course you did" as I tried not to get sick to my stomach.

   Over the past weekend Barbara again found Royal Terns at Quonny so I knew they were still around. I had plans with Sue to go clamming on Wednesday so I figured I'd go to Quonny really early and hope the terns made an appearance. I got up  before my alarm and rushed down. Barbara, Linda Gardrel, and John Bean were all there. The bird didn't show while I was there and I left at 10:30 to meet Sue. I had fun talking with everyone so, despite the dip, a good morning. That night, Linda went back and had the terns at 6 pm!!!

   Thursday morning, Barbara texted me that they appeared at 6 am. I had plans for Thursday and couldn't go. Also, it is getting really frustrating blowing thirty five dollars worth of gas just to drive home empty handed. This was why I tried the day I went clamming. So I could do a two for one deal. I decided I would try again Friday.

   So Friday July 14 would be my day of reckoning. My plan was to stay at Quonny all day. If I didn't see the Royal Terns I was not going to chase them again. I woke up later than I hoped and didn't make it to Quonny until 8:40. Barbara had seen the terns flying over the sandbar in the rain about 6 am. I live too far away to ever make it to Quonny at 6 am, so I didn't feel bad about missing them. I was just glad to know they were still around. 

   Throughout the morning it rained on and off. For over an hour I was relegated to my car due to lightning all around. At 1:30 pm it cleared up for good. Till this point I hadn't seen any Royal Terns and as you can imagine I was frustrated. At 3:15 I left to get something to eat. I didn't pack food and only had eaten a banana on my way down. I got back at 4:15 and met Sue there who was willing to give me moral support and another set of eyes. 

  An hour later as I was looking west into the glare, Sue was looking straight across to the north. She said, "this tern looks good for Royal. It was clearly a big tern, much bigger than the Commons we had seen. We kept an eye on it and when it turned sideways to us we could see the huge light orange bill without any black on the tip. Finally! We watched it head west into the glare. We got some crappy pictures of it. Sue lightened one up and sent it to me as I was driving home. 

   You might think there was joy from finally seeing this species after so many failures. But there was no jubilation at all. I was just glad to get it over with. It was the same feeling as when your done washing a lot of dishes or when you've wrapped your last Christmas present. It was just a relief to be done with it. 

  For me, I stopped doing a year list a couple of years ago (you can read about it in a post). I stopped doing the year list because I was chasing everything. I got anxiety from fairly rare birds that I'd seen before but might miss. I was too competitive and after a couple years of being close to the top it was no longer fun. Instead of hanging with my buds on Saturdays, I'd go chase the birds they (retired) had found during the week. Once I stopped year listing birding became fun again. 

   However, a state bird is much different than a year bird. Except for Pacific Loon, Royal Tern is probably the only species that shows up almost every year that I hadn't seen. I had already put so much effort into finding one that I really needed to "accomplish" my goal. As I said, I'd seen them in three states. I also could not improve on my photos since they were landing at my feet as the tide rose on Sanibel Island. I looked for it so many times in RI, that despite those things, for me, it was important.

   Now that this chase is over, I'm hoping to get back to the joys of birding again. The shorebirds are in and I do love me some shorebirds. Next week I'm going birding with my dear friend Scott. We always have great conversations. I spent a lot of time with Sue this week which was definitely a bonus.

   If you spend enough time birding, we are all going to have our shares of ups and downs. We are all going to have a nemesis bird. When the Common Gull was found by Sam Miller, Tim Metcalf and I were the last ones to see it before it flew. Conversely, last year, I was the first person to miss the MacGillvaray's Warbler. It was still in the bushes but it never came out the rest of the day. When I did a RI big year in 2019 my nemesis (besides Royal Tern) was Purple Finch. It tortured me. Ironically, I saw one in January of 2020! All of this is just part of birding.

   I've said many times that birding should be fun. There are an infinite number of ways it can be enjoyable. Some of us like taking photos. Others keep lists from every state, town, year, and even a tree list in their yard. Some people just watch their feeders while others may take a trip to South Africa. The point is there is no wrong way to bird. As long as you have fun that is all that matters. For me, I love taking photos and I love spending time with my bird pals. I'll still chase state birds, and probably should have chased more (like the Frigatebird). Now that I have the Royal Tern checked off, birding will be fun again. And if no one is around to go birding with, there are always Black Racers to look for!

I know many people don't like snakes, but I also know many Rhode Islanders have never seen a venomous Copperhead. So below there is a photo of one of the Copperheads I saw in Connecticut. I put it at the bottom of the post so anyway that doesn't want to see it doesn't have to. Scroll down if you are interested.