It’s not too often I get a chance at a “Life Bird” within 40 minutes of home, so I was rather excited when I received an email last night that a Black-throated Gray Warbler was discovered by a young birder in Cape Elizabeth. Charlie found the bird on Saturday, but confirmed its identity and photographed it on Sunday. He sent the pictures to Luke. Luke posted to the listserves, and at 6:15 this morning, I was on my way to Cape Elizabeth!

I arrived at Pond Cove at 7:05 and immediately heard an unfamiliar call note. Within seconds, I had located the Black-throated Gray Warbler sallying for flies that were emerging in the sun from the warmth of the rotting seaweed lining the beach. This bird, who breeds in the West and Southwest U.S. should of been well on it's way to Mexico by now, but for some reason - whether "faulty wiring" or storm winds or something else, it found its way all the way here to Maine to brighten our Halloween! (Maybe it was just a Yellow-rumped Warbler in costume!!!!! The call is similiar!!!!)

I snapped a few photos, enjoyed a “moment” with the bird, then grabbed my cell phone and started dialing. Lysle arrived about a half hour later and we spent the next hour or so photographing and enjoying this wayward western warbler as it foraged in the bushes and in the wrack along the shoreline. It will be tough to forget the sight of Lysle crawling on his hands and knees with his tripod and camera through the wretched rotting wrack - the maggots were crawling on his legs, and he had a swarm of flies around him that was reminiscent of Pig Pen's dust cloud from the Peanuts!

The “B-T Gray” was soon joined by a late Blackpoll Warbler, a interesting juxtaposition of East and West! What a beautiful little fella (I believe it is an immature male), as Mark later said, “How is something that is only gray, black, and white so beautiful?”

After a brief walk with the dog in Robinson Woods across the street (which yielded a lingering Common Yellowthroat and a Red-bellied Woodpecker), I enjoyed the B-T Gray – along with a visit with Julie, Gloria, and Rich who had all arrived by now - for a little longer before heading out to do some more birding.

A spin at Fort Williams Park produced a few Snow Buntings and another late Blackpoll Warbler, as well as a couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers (making four species of warblers on the day, not bad for the last day of October!). But, as I was about to check Bug Light Park, the phone rang again. It was Jeannette, who was passing along a report from Stella (who I was just talking to at Pond Cove) of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher found in Cape Elizabeth by two birders driving up to see the B-T Gray!!! (This is what we refer to as the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect. This is when birders travel to a specific spot to see a specific bird – the namesake being the Rose-throated Becards found breeding at the Patagonia Rest Area off of a highway in Southeastern Arizona – and then find other “good” birds. ) I hit the brakes, and pulled a “Jersey U-Turn.”

The report was of the Flycatcher “across the street from 162 Spurwink.” Well, a number of us all convened at where 162 Spurwink Ave in Cape Elizabeth SHOULD have been, but no such house number existed. But, across the street was Maxwell’s Farm – a good as place as any to attract a Scissor-tail, so I birded that area for a bit – a flock of 24 Horned Larks were nice – but then met Joan and Marie who were also looking for 162 Spurwink.

So, we all drove all the way back to Pond Cove to get the whole story from Stella, Mark, and everyone else who was present. Turned out it was my friends Denny and Davis who found the bird – I had woken Denny up with my phone call only a couple of hours earlier – on their way to the Warbler, but the bird was across the street from 162 Spurwink ROAD in SCARBOROUGH. When the caravan arrived there, we found out from a neighbor that the bird had flown off at about 9:30 – and it was now already around 11:00. Oh well – batted .500 in the chases this morning! But, saw the best one – the Black-throated Gray Warbler, a life bird for me and many others, and a state bird for everyone else! There are only a few records of this warbler for Maine, and this is the only “twitchable” one that anyone could remember! (One or two Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are found almost every year in Maine, so I have more chances at that one!).

And I guess I can’t really complain anymore about not finding rare birds in Cape Elizabeth - guess I was just looking in the wrong places!