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The Add Hawk Committee (sic) 2007 Birdathon
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ad hoc ( ad hok ' , hok ' ) committee
adv.
For the specific purpose, case, or situation at hand and for no other: a committee formed ad hoc to address the issue of birdathon.
adj.
- Formed for or concerned with one specific purpose.
- Improvised and often impromptu.
[Latin: ad , to + hoc , neuter accusative of hic, this.]
Vivian, a tall chick obsessed with all things birdie, hatched the plan. The goal? To gather a group of birders also obsessed, willing to stay up 24 plus hours to bird for a worthy cause AND to post the highest number of species seen.
Matt!, also tall, also obsessed, and most importantly one of the nicest guys on the planet. How obsessed? Last year Matt! traveled the globe and saw 1001 species of birds. How tall, well not all that tall…How nice? In the top 3 and he gets Christmas cards from the other two.
Peter, also tall, also obsessed and most importantly one of the other 2 nicest guys on the planet. How obsessed? He birded all day for the weeks leading up to the event AND he birded all day for the week after (absolutely obsessed). How tall? Very. How nice? He sends Matt! Christmas Cards.
All we needed was a fourth. He had to be obsessed, he had to be nice and if he was tall it wouldn't hurt anything…Enter Aleck, tall, obsessed and very, very, nice. Nice enough to send cards to Peter and Matt! and to be on their mailing list too. AND he had a hidden but much needed talent; he is able to drive safely, and rapidly down twisting dirt roads, stopping on a dime for birds and can do so for 24 hours straight!
We had our “Add Hawk Committee”! Now we needed a plan. Birding skills; check. Team; check. Rental car big enough to hold 4 tall obsessed birders and their gear; check. A well thought out route was all we needed and some luck from the weather gods wouldn't hurt.
After reviewing all the BIRDWG05 big day reports for the past 2 years, memorizing all the owling reports posted over that time and posting several unsuspicious-looking RFI's to other well known birders (thanks Rick, Darlene, and Kendall…suckers!) we had a route.
5:30pm found us at Middle Bear Picnic area on Mt. Lemmon racking up higher elevation species at the speed of light, which was important as light was fading fast! We found ourselves at the top of the mountain as the stars came out, which was good, because we were there to owl.
As it turned out, Matt! had worked in the past collecting owl data and was a master at calling them. As we dove down the mountain we stopped briefly at Ski Valley , Marshall Gulch, Bear Wallow Road , Rose Canyon Lake , Bear Canyon and finally the “hairpin” at the bottom. We'd scored Northern Saw-whet, Flammulated, Northern Pygmy, Spotted, Wiskered Screech and Elf Owls due to his skills. In addition we tallied Whip-Poor-Will, and Common Poorwill too.
We still needed Great Horned, Western Screech and Barn Owls to complete the sweep. At the East end of Speedway we collected the first 2 along with Lesser Night Hawk. Barn Owl would be the first of “the ones that got away”.
We headed home for a quick catnap and regrouped at 4:00am for the real run! Just before first light we were in the grasslands leading up to Madera Canyon and got our first diurnal bird, Red Jungle Fowl! We knew we were in the right place…the day dawned cool, and clear with no wind, we knew the weather gods were pleased with our efforts.
Sparrows, warblers, tanagers, orioles, hummingbirds, all seemed to be on our side. The only bird that seemed to plot against us was the Cactus Wren, a notoriously easy to see, easy to identify by ear bird…none, anywhere, yet…
Greaterville Road seemed like a good idea. But the bouncing only added a sense of urgency to our collective bladders and we finally had to make a “pit” stop. Perhaps it was the time of morning, perhaps the birding gods were smiling on us or, most likely, it was sound of rushing water in that dry spot, that brought them in…Whatever, Botteri's and Cassin's Sparrow popped up and sang, a Northern Beadless-Tyrannulet answered and showed his little self and just as we were ready to go, up jumps a Rufuos-crowned Sparrow to sing his ‘lil heart out too. Cactus Wren? Not yet…
Soniota Crossroads is not the prettiest spot, couple of mini-marts, public restroom and full of House Sparrows, Rock Pigeons, and European Starlings. Hey wait a minute, that's just what we needed!
The Patagonia run was perfect, everything you hope for and more, including staggering looks at Swainson's Thrush but no Cactus Wren…dadburnit.
Rio Rico Ponds…indeed, I felt I'd been had. Could Darlene have sensed my RFI was bogus? Where the heck is Rio Rico anyway? Aleck whipped the SUV around in a very stylish and highly illegal u-turn, as he'd smelled water in the fields we were passing. Did I mention his uncanny driving skills? Sure enough, Darlene's directions were perfect, too bad we didn't find them until we were cleaning out the car the next day, would have saved a lot of time…
We only had 146. Did I really just complain about 146? It was more than I'd ever seen in a day but we had the itch now and we couldn't be stopped. Peter set his cell phone alarm to 5:30pm so we'd know when to stop and we made our final run, still no Cactus Wren…
Amado, GVWWTP, Sweetwater and finally the Ina Road bridge, we were at 168! We only needed a Cactus Wren to seal the day. 3 minutes left! Peter headed over into the John Deer Tractor lot and we all followed eyes burning, ears tuned, ignoring the folks driving by gawking at 4 birders wandering around a junk yard…
I was home by 6:30 and tallying the birds, 168 it was. 4 obsessed birders, 24 hours of birding, 350 plus miles driven and 168 species of birds tallied and not one single ding-dang Cactus Wren…
I was just finishing counting for the 5 time and was finally satisfied that my count was right when I heard it. Just a small chuckle, a little cough, then he began in earnest, “jub, jub, jub, yak, yak, yak”, you know who it was!
There he was, the one that got away, picking the bugs off the grill of the rental car and 2 hours too late to make the count but still magnificent in his little brown and white checkered suit! Did I mention we're obsessed?
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Email This page was updated on 06/04/07