Being a Tucsonan, I feel at times I have seen all the birds there are to see in my immediate vicinity. I often have the feeling that I must go out beyond my everyday surroundings in the search of lifers. But as I have been working on this 2014 list and diving more into the birds where I commonly see the everyday birds, the more I am discovering lifers completely by accident.
Along with my birding I have been attempting to stay fit with some running around Reid Park in the center of Tucson's urban scene. As I do my runs, I sometimes take a few minutes to walk around the park to see what other birds I might recognize. I have come across a couple of species that I hope to identify. One is a kingbird, which according to all field guides and other resources, not a single species should be wintering this far north. I have narrowed the suspect to one of two species: Cassin's or Western Kingbird. I am leaning towards Cassin's myself. I just need a good look at the tail. The other is a cormorant. And to be frank with you, I have had my share of cormorants in my lifetime, from swimming outside my bedroom window in South Korea, to finding them working with fishermen on the lakes in Japan. I have searched and finally found the Pelagic within flocks of Temnick's. And then one winter day found a Great cormorant at a reservoir on the west side of Jeju. Do not get me wrong. I totally adore the graceful pose of a cormorant sunning itself. But when I do see one, identifying one is not so much a priority as it use to be.
That brings be up to this morning, which I must say is brisker than most other mornings. My goal was to find these two birds and finally identify them without a doubt with the hopes that both would be lifers. With very little light, stalking the bigger lake at the park would be easier to find the cormorants. I had seen them the day before, but this morning may had been just too early. Not a cormorant in sight. But, swimming along with the other waterfowl was a pied eared grebe, not a lifer, but an Arizona lifer and an addition to 2014. As the sun was making its appearance, I decided to check out the places where I had seen the kingbird. A circus was parked here for the weekend. As the rays touched the tops of the trees in front of me, a bird gradually came to light. From the shadows, I could tell it was blue and reddish, but how much was blue and red was blurred by its dark profile. After about 15 minutes of freezing and making sure I did not lose sight of this bird, it became quite clear it was the Eastern bluebird. I was shocked. I did not even know that this was his range. A lifer right in my backyard in the center of the city. I could have left a happy man if it wasn't of that white whale, this kingbird that was eluding me. I checked all the spots I had seem him before but nowhere in sight this morning. I got in my car because decided I was too frozen to go on with this chase.
As I began to drive out, red flashed to the left of me. First thought, a vermillion flycatcher. Too big. Cardinal? No crest or black around the beak. Binoculars come flying out and there in front of me was a tanager, the Hepatic tanager, the one species that tends to stay in these parts for the winter while his brothers take off for the south. For me, fortune brought me to another lifer. I have been spending my time trying to find birds that I normally see, and yet I am coming in contact with birds I would not have imagined meeting on a winter's morn. The game has gotten more interesting that I could have imagined. I thought I was trapped in the world of the mundane, finding birds that I found a hundred times before. Now I am finding more lifers than one could imagine.
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