I could only take reading the Brown Booby posts for so long. When I
Mapquested the trip and saw Lake Claytor SP was the basically the same
distance from Downingtown, PA, as Scarborough, Maine was, I admit was a
little daunted. But then I saw that the West Virginia, White-cheeked Pintail
was exactly on the way and that sealed the deal.
I left Saturday morning at 4am so that I would arrive at sun up in Charles
Town, WV. I was concerned that the pouring rain would keep me from seeing
the W-C but as luck would have it, it slowed down to a drizzle by the time I
found the right pond at the Locust Hill Golf course. (Thanks to all the
great folks that were so helpful with posting sightings and directions. Matt
and Barry and the others, you know who you are!). The White-cheeked Pintail
(Photos) was in with Mallards and Canada geese and I viewed it swimming
along happily for about 5 minute until the Golf course�s lawnmower went by
and sent the entire contents of the pond flying away. So I was off.
Four hours later, around noon, I was at Claytor Lake State Park in VA at the
Gazebo behind the Vistor�s center. The rain had stopped but it was cold and
cloudy. The park was well covered with birders, as it had been since 8:00am,
and although it was good meeting Paul and Rob and the many other birders, it
would have been nice for the bird to show up. I stayed until around sunset
amusing myself by watching the EARED GREBES (and there were a lot of them)
fishing. I had heard Sunday would be warm and sunny, so I decided tomorrow
would be a better day and got a room nearby.
7:40am and I was back in the Gazebo and watching aprox. 60 COOTS form a
surprisingly straight line off the lake shore and munch there way down the
shoreline in the morning mist. Not long after another birder William from
Harrisonburg, VA, showed up and by 9:00am Mike Iwanik and Mark Adams had
shown up to round things out. William had heard that the beach around the
bend was a good place to watch from so we made plans to exchange cell
numbers. Unfortunately, I found my Phone was gone! So with the speed of a
Jamaican sprinter (this will be funny to those of you who know me) I was off
to the motel to search my room. The cleaning service was working on MY room
when I showed up. That was a lucky break. I managed to locate the phone
under the bed and I sped back to the lake barely in time to catch the others
in the parking lot leaving for the beach area and we were able to exchange
numbers. It was a good thing too! I and another birder who came to the
Gazebo were there only a few minutes, when I saw the BROWN BOOBY (PHOTOS,
awful ones actually) come out low from around the island just a short
distance from us and head straight for us. I alerted the birder with me,
grabbed my phone and dialed Mark as I ran off the gazebo in time to watch it
fly right by me no more than 20 feet over my head. I followed the bird down
the shoreline and watched it disappear around a bend in the lake. Mark, Mike
and William showed up and we located the bird far down at the other end of
the lake where it continued to work the cove and shoreline for about a half
an hour until we all lost it. Thankfully, Mark picked it up again much
closer across the near shore of the lake, flying very low over the water.
After a piece, it circled around, flew toward us and landed on the water.
Overall, we were all treated to very nice looks at the bird in flight and
floating on the water. After the bird flew off I decided to head north
again.
I still had plenty of light when I reached WV so I decided to stop and try
for a more satisfying look and hopefully better pictures of the WCPI. I
first stopped at the Golf course but it wasn�t there so I went to the
Huntfield Community pond where it had been seen until the water dried up.
Yesterday�s rain had done the trick and the White-cheeked Pintail (Photos)
was back in the pond. It was around 4:30pm and light was great and the bird
looked beautiful. It was a very nice sight.
Checkout the bird photos at the link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffamy/
regards
jeff
Downingtown, PA
