Brig 3/15--GYRFALCON

Sometimes I think that birding is just a matter of your vector intersecting the bird's vector and skill is involved only when you don't at first recognize the bird whose life line you're colliding with. Which is another way of saying "Right place, right time=success" but 90% of success, as a discredited comedian once observed, is showing up. Which is why, when I got an alert that a GYRFALCON was again being seen at Brig, I showed up there, abandoning my noodling around in the Barnegat area. It's hard for me to get a life bird in New Jersey these days.

The bird was first reported on the Osprey platform on the east dike, which I found amusing, because in a month or so, that will be my least favorite spot in Brig as the photographers line up waiting for the light to be just so in order to take the 17 billionth picture of the raptor on its nest. But today, unfortunately, when I arrived there with Chris, another birder from Ocean County who also sped down when he saw the alert, there was no Gyrfalcon to be seen.

About a month ago this same bird, probably, was being seen off Nummy's Island, about 30 miles south of Brig. I remember getting the alert when I was at Assunpink, doing a quick calculation that it was over 100 miles from me to the bird and dismissing the idea. Then on Sunday or Monday of this week, there was a late report that the bird had been photographed at Brig, but nothing since, so it obviously ranges around into areas not accessible to birders and only once in a while does its vector intersect with observability.

Chris and I continued around the dikes, stopping a couple of times to look in what we thought would be likely spots, but the bird wasn't around. I got back to the parking lot, trying to decide whether it was worth going around again when I saw Mike pull in. He too had seen the alert and hurried down. We joined forces and it was out onto the dikes again. Chris texted me that bird had been seen flying with prey, in the same area as before. Then he texted me that the bird had flown right over his head. Well, at least he got to see it. Mike drove as fast as the speed limit allowed and when we turned onto the east dike we saw a birder with a scope out, motioning us on. Having a scope out was an accomplishment today because the winds were brutal, probably at least 30 mph and more likely 40 mph. At least the air temperature wasn't cold or I wouldn't have stayed there, life bird or not.

How windy was it? When Chris and I first got there, we drove toward the east dike perhaps a bit over the speed limit with Chris in front. It was so windy that I lost sight of his vehicle in the dust blowing up behind it. How windy was it? Sitting in Mike's car as it was buffeted by the wind, I was getting motion sickness. How windy was it? I still have a headache from the wind pounding my head.

The bird, being more intelligent that we are, was sitting on the ground out of the wind, pretty far out in the impoundment. I took a look through the guy's scope and saw a big, gray, barrel-chested falcon with no "hooded" appearance, and satisfied myself, in the 5 seconds I had, that it was my lifer. Mike, ever environmentally conscious, unfortunately, was picking up checklists that had blown out of the car, so a woman cut in front of him, got the bird and by the time Mike looked, it had flown (or been blown) away. We set up our scopes to scan, but the shake from the wind was too much.

We never did relocate the bird, though it did come back to the same platform when we were 4 miles away from it. That's what I mean about intersecting vectors: some birder's were, some birder's weren't. I feel a little fortunate to have seen the bird at all yet, I hate looking through someone else's scope because you're always rushed. That's why I say it isn't satisfying until I see it in my scope.

Who knows, maybe the bird will more reliable this weekend and Shari and I can go down and get it tomorrow--it would be a lifer for her too. No photos today. The bird was too far away. Besides, I forgot my camera. And even had I remembered my camera, the battery was still in the recharging unit.

My list:

42 species

Snow Goose  3000

Brant  200

Canada Goose  100

Mute Swan  4

Northern Shoveler  70

Gadwall  25

American Wigeon  5

Mallard  7

American Black Duck  25

Northern Pintail  15

Green-winged Teal  55

Canvasback  15

Ring-necked Duck  12

Bufflehead  10

Hooded Merganser  5

Red-breasted Merganser  2

Ruddy Duck  11

Dunlin  50

Greater Yellowlegs  20

Ring-billed Gull  13

Herring Gull  100

Great Black-backed Gull  3

Double-crested Cormorant  3

Great Blue Heron  2

Great Egret  6

Turkey Vulture  3

Northern Harrier  2

GYRFALCON  1    

Peregrine Falcon  2

Eastern Phoebe  1    Heard upland

American Crow  4

Fish Crow  5

Tree Swallow  1

Carolina Chickadee  1    Heard parking lot

Tufted Titmouse  1    Heard upland

Red-breasted Nuthatch  1    Heard parking lot

Eastern Bluebird  2

American Robin  1

Savannah Sparrow  1

Song Sparrow  2

Red-winged Blackbird  15

Northern Cardinal  1    Heard