Wow, what a couple of exciting days!

Yes, our store’s Second Anniversary Celebration on Saturday was exciting, but you know what I really mean: the WESTERN REEF-HERON in Kittery!

Normally occurring from Western Africa east into India, this bird is quite far from home! Earlier this summer, a Western Reef-Heron North America’s 3rd record (Martha’s Vineyard, April 26 – September 13th, 1983 and Newfoundland last summer were the previous two records) was discovered in Nova Scotia. Then, about 2 weeks ago, it disappeared. Headed south perhaps?

With all of the islands, marshes, mudflats, and peninsulas, what are the chances that the bird would be seen again? Slim to none? What are the chances that my friend Lysle would be birding in Kittery on his way home from a meeting in Connecticut? What are the chances that he would notice a feeding frenzy of terns off of the Kittery Point Town Landing and pull out his scope to check it out? What are the chances that he would focus through the tern flock, onto the island (Fishing Island) behind them and see what looks like a Little Blue Heron with a white throat, yellow feet, and two plumes on this back of its head?

But, at 6:30 am on Friday, I received the call. I was out filling feeders and checking the yard for migrants. I came back in to a voicemail on the cell phone, after just missing a call on the house line. I retrieved the message, “Derek its Lysle, I’m looking at a Western . . . . static . . . Reef-Heron off of the . . . .static . . . . Kittery Point. . . . crackle . . . .landing, Route 103 . . . .noise . . behind Frisbee’s Market .. . . now . . . call . . . .”

Before completely comprehending the message, or how much work I had to do that day, I was in my car and heading down the road. I called Ed. “Are you TRYING to get me FIRED? Fine, I’m in . . . pick me up . . . I’ll meet you at Sam’s Club. . . .”

So Ed and I were cruising down the Turnpike, with Lysle checking in, and us passing on reports. We arrive at about 8:00, and Denny and Davis only a few minutes behind. Lysle is shaking with excitement, adrenalin, and sleep deprivation. We unpack the scopes – Wow! There it was.

This was no cryptic “little brown job,” this is a charismatic, attractive, wicked cool bird. We enjoyed looks through the scope before finding the Captain of the local harbor cruise tour boat. For a bargain - $5 a head - Captain Neil took us to within about 50 yards of the island – close enough for crippling, mind-numbing, shorts-soiling looks – but not too close so as to not disturb the bird.

After a half hour of thoroughly enjoyable views, we headed back to the dock to watch the bird some more. Soon thereafter, we lost sight of the bird, as it tucked itself into some taller spartina and other grasses on Fishing Island. Ed headed for work, and I stuck around with Lysle as we chatted with the local business owners to organize things for the weekend deluge. And I don’t mean today’s rain – if this bird stuck around, hundreds of people would be flooding the area.

When we returned, the bird had disappeared. But, now, a number of other birders were arriving as the word got out. However, we didn’t know where it went. After much searching throughout the day, including by Captain Neil’s boat, kayak, etc, birders had not relocated the bird. (Lysle and I finally left at about 11:30 after searching for the bird around Chauncey Creek and Fort Foster). Presumably, the bird left Fishing Island from the backside, likely heading out to feed on mudflats that were appearing as the tide receded.

The bird was not seen again, but at 6:30 on Saturday morning, the bird arrived on Fishing Island! I’m not sure how many birders were there, but the early birder gets the worm, as by 7:45, it was gone. However, later in the afternoon, New Hampshire birders find it foraging on mudflats in Portsmouth! Now, birders arriving for Sunday morning had a quandary – do they head to Kittery or Portsmouth?

I – and many others – hypothesized that the bird is in the Fishing Island/Pepperrell Cove area until the tide recedes and mudlflats were exposed. Therefore, when my friend Scott from New Jersey said that he, Linda, and John – who I haven’t seen in at least 3 years – were coming up (driving through the night), I suggested they begin at the pier at the town landing.

I really didn’t need to drive back down the Turnpike this morning, but I wanted to see my friends. Plus, I had promised I’d take Luke down, so I picked up Luke and arrived at 6:40 this morning to high-fives from Scott, Linda, and John – and Mike – and about 50 other rain-soaked birders from as far as Delaware (and NJ, NY, CT, VT, MA, NH, and QC). Despite the miserable weather, there were few non-smiling faces.

Although the visibility wasn’t great, the bird was easily visible and identifiable on nearby Gooseberry Island. Then, as Snowy Egrets were moving about to feed, the Reef-Heron (known as “The REEFER”) flew towards the remaining rain-soaked, scope-glued birders, and lands about 60 yards away, where we ooooo-ed and ahhhhh-ed over it until the heavy rain made optics useless and we were shivering from the cold rain and strong winds.

After the rain let up a bit, Scott, Linda, John, Mike, Luke, and I decided to bird a little more in the area – including twitching a Mute Swan that I had recently learned about. Oh, oops, I wasn’t supposed to tell people Scott had LOOKED for a Mute Swan (go to the Jersey shore, like Lake Como and Shark River Inlet, and you’ll know why; this highly invasive, and highly aggressive introduced species is seriously damaging habitat and driving away native waterfowl.) This chase was for the irony.

After twitching the “Pond Pigs,” we drive through York Harbor, checking out shorebirds along the way. Our destination was The Nubble, where we hoped some seawatching in the strong Easterly wind would be productive. Visibility had improved just enough to scan the ocean. We thought a shearwater or two would be reasonable, but we didn’t think we’d see at least 40 Greater Shearwaters and 2 close Manx Shearwaters within 45 minutes! Good show!

But, it was time for Luke and I to head North, and for Scott, Linda, and John to head south, so we said our goodbyes, exchanged congratulations, and drove off. Luke I then proceeded to celebrate with lunch at the Jamaican Jerk Center before sitting in rubber-necking traffic on the Turnpike (just like being back in NJ!)

(By the way, complete sightings reports, updates, links to more info, etc, can be found on our website: www.yarmouthbirds.com/bird_news.asp)