Crestwood Village 12/6--RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL

RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL
© Josh Gant (many thanks)

Last night, late, I got a text from a birder friend asking me if I knew someone who lived in Crestwood Village who had just posted a pic, on Facebook, where I have no account, of a RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL. 

To which I responded: WHAT?

To which she responded: Exactly.

Now, the address given is exactly 1.1 miles from this house. What are the odds of me seeing a life bird, from Eurasia, 1.1 miles from my house? Well, I can't calculate those odds, but they are enormous. I don't really like to chase birds, but this Old World flycatcher made the recent Limpkin in Monmouth look like a House Sparrow. I have to say, I spent an agitated night trying to sleep. 

Crestwood Village is not a birding mecca. The resident who listed it, didn't realize the rarity of the bird. He wasn't expecting the hordes of birders that showed up there this morning. I didn't even bother driving there, but left the house just before dawn and walked over, arriving just at a cloudy sunrise. And for the next 2 something hours, spent time walking up and down the winding streets of Village 5, looking for a little gray bird (this is a female) with red flanks. More and more eyes showed up. At one point, so intent was I on the search, that when a charcoal Subaru pulled up, I didn't even recognize it as our car. Shari, whose recovery is going well, had driven over in case the bird showed up. It happens that the bird's location was across the street from one our friends' house, so we told her to be on the lookout for the bird too. I was pretty far up Spring St with my birder friend when we got the word that the bird had been located again. I don't run. I ran. I ran around the block and the bird had skulked away. 

But it didn't seem to have gone far in the hedge row that separated the houses on Spring & Juniper. Occasional quick sightings were made, and I had a perfect streak of missing them. When I was on Spring, it was seen from Juniper. When I was on Juniper...

I was getting frustrated and cold on Juniper listening to conflicting directions about where you couldn't see the bird, but it was there, when Shari texted me from Spring that she had seen the bird. I ran, again. More confusing instructions until, somehow, probably randomly, my binoculars landed on the bird, about a foot off the ground. With frozen fingers, an overcast sky, and a jumpy bird, I didn't even attempt to take a photo. However, Josh Gant & Peggy Cadigan were kind enough to share their photos with me (and you). 

© Peggy Cadigan
Peggy, a much more dedicated birder than me, stayed for hours until she was able to get this photo

Maybe the bird will stick around (there was one in California, I'm informed, that stuck for months) and I'll wander over there again. Happily, the neighborhood hasn't produced any "get off my lawn" people, but then, happily, everyone has been respectful of property, so far. The bird can be seen from the street. 

And, as it always does when a rarity like this shows up in a completely unexpected locale, it makes me wonder how many rare birds are overlooked on lawns, in bushes, on roadsides by people who don't know or don't care. Who would have recognized the Mississippi Kites that nested in Waretown if a birder hadn't happened to live across the street? And how did the bird get here? No storm seems to have blown it over, like the lapwings of New Egypt, 10 years ago. Maybe it hitched a ride on a boat and flew south from Port Newark. We'll never know. Now. If it can only stay out of the talons of a Cooper's Hawk.