That week went quick – too quick! It seems like just yesterday I was flying in, and here I am already en route back to Maine (somewhere between Houston and New Jersey at the moment). I certainly miss home, Jeannette, Sasha, and Maine birds (actually I begin to miss them all, especially Jeannette and Sasha, our dog, immediately upon leaving Portland!), but this was a great little trip. Saw some great birds, had fun with lots of old friends, made some new ones, and HOPEFULLY convinced at least a few people that they should visit St. Paul Island.

This “job” of mine for the week was not just a chance to reminisce about the Pribilofs – and relive my previous “bird bum” lifestyle! – But it was a great opportunity to promote a place that I truly do love. It wasn’t actually hard for me to tell people why they should visit St. Paul: from great birding (Asian vagrants, thousands of breeding seabirds – Horned and Tufted Puffins, Common and Thick-billed Murres, Northern Fulmar, Black-legged and Red-legged Kittiwakes, Least, Parakeet, and Crested Auklets, and Red-faced Cormorants) hundreds of thousands of Northern Fur Seals, 120+ species of flower plants, fascinating geology, the largest Aleut community in the world, and a cumulative bird list of around 250 species; all of this on a remote 44.4 square mile rock 300 miles out in the Bering Sea.

So, that was the job: talk about birds and birding, promote the joy of birding, and help to promote so-called ecotourism. Not a bad job, ey? I also briefly put on my Birding Magazine hat (I review birding products for my Tools of the Trade column) and played with various optics. The American Birding Association conventions are a great place for me to look for new products to review – and eventually carry at the store. There’s no way that we could fit every binocular out there in our store (nor afford to!), so I use opportunities like this to do a bit of research in order to bring the best options into our display case.

My only complaint about the convention is that the trade show is when I wander around and see all of the other tour companies from around the world – I want to visit them all! I chatted with the representatives from Uganda, Argentina, and Costa Rica to name a few. And, sitting next to my friends who own Tropical Birding, my palette was certainly being whetted – and conversations with them led to some productive brainstorming (was that some highly suggestive foreshadowing???)

Anyway, back to actual birding . . .

On Thursday, Mike, Cameron, and I headed on a whirlwind trip to sample some of the region’s best birding. Getting an early start, we raced down to the coast, to visit the migrant trap on the Gulf Coast of Peveto Woods. Although the major fallout didn’t occur – but it was a good flight – Wednesday afternoon, there were handfuls of migrants “leftover” for us Thursday morning. Although the numbers of individuals was low, diversity was quite high. I was quite satisfied with crippling views of Summer Tanagers, 7+ Orchard Orioles, 5+ Indigo Buntings, and 8 species of warbler.

Wandering eastward, we checked some shoreline locations, and headed to the East Jetty at Cameron (really, the trip was just so Cameron could go birding in a town called Cameron). With the tide nearly high, thousands of roosting birds were packed together, sandwiched between the Gulf and the shoreline vegetation (or what little vegetation has returned; this area was the first real hurricane devastation that we encountered – the area was still strewn with debris, piles of rubble, and the only sign of many buildings were crumbling foundations. Luckily, one of the repaired buildings was offering lunch, and we thoroughly enjoyed some exceptional sandwiches, loaded with meat - chicken for me, shrimp for my friends - on a sub-style roll, known down here as a Po’Boy.

(But, back to the birds . . . as now I am sitting in a corner at Newark Airport, having finally found an open outlet.) Beginning with the many hundreds of Laughing Gulls, the other species present – in very crudely estimated descending order – were as follows: Royal Tern, Black Skimmer, Sandwich Tern, Dunlin, American Avocet, Common Tern, Caspian Tern, Whimbrel, and Forster’s Tern. Also present were some Sanderlings, 5 or so Herring Gulls, 1 Ring-billed Gull, one massive American White Pelican that towered over everyone else, and a single Ruddy Turnstone. Other birds were around, like two tardy Red-breasted Mergansers that loafed offshore, and a single Wilson’s Plover (a species I have not seen in quite some time!) . . . oh yeah, and my “best” bird of the trip.

A rather large, hefty, 1st-cycle gull. To me, it immediately suggested a
1st Cycle Great Black-backed Gull, a real rarity this far west. However, large gull ID is compounded here by what used to be a colony of South American Kelp Gulls that were colonizing the offshore Chandeleur Islands. The only problem was that they liked Herring Gulls. Hybrids abounded. Identification became a challenge, maybe even impossibility. Then, Katrina virtually wiped out the Chandeleurs. The “Chandeleur Gulls” as the apparent “hybrid swarm” became known, had to disperse (if they had survived). While this bird was a bit “off” for a Great Black-backed Gull, it seemed more “off” for a Chandeleur Gull. Especially after a field trip studied the bird (one of the leaders was Alvaro Jaramillo, one of the best around when it comes to gulls), the consensus - with at least one dissenting opinion – was that this was indeed a 1st Cycle Great Black-backed Gull. So, I flew all of the way to Louisiana for a Great Black-backed Gull? But, all kidding aside, this bird was a fantastic learning experience (just like the Hooded Warbler that took me to school two days before), and that is more important than a checkmark on a state list.

Unfortunately, we were rapidly running short of time by the time we hit the loop drive at Cameron Prairie NWR. We just couldn’t “work” the area as hard as we wanted, but it was still a great stop, with lots of Long-billed Dowitchers, Lesser Yellowlegs, Black-necked Stilts, and White-faced Ibis among others.

But, all too soon, it was time to head back to the hotel. We did not have time to visit the rice fields of Lacassine, so I went home without a life bird. No Swainson’s Warbler, and now, now Fulvous Whistling-Duck (I did see one off the I-10, but I am not a fan of counting life birds as 75mph!). But, I do have Great Black-backed Gull on my newest state list! More importantly however, I had a great day of sampling some of coastal Louisiana’s birding opportunities (I could have gone on a trip to be virtually guaranteed my life Whistling-Duck, but the chance to see more areas, especially a coastal migrant trap, was too tempting. Besides, IF there had been a fallout, I would have been rather bitter about trading one life bird for a overwhelming and fascinating migratory phenomena), saw some new territory (and seeing real devastation, not just snippets on TV, even this long after, makes the tragedy of the Hurricanes even more real), and had a good time with good friends. What more could I have asked for? Other than a few more days in Louisiana, of course!

Tally for the 5 1/2 days I was in town:
Total bird species: 138
Total number of biscuits: 7
Number of Po'Boys: 2
Bowls of Gumbo: 2
Bottles of Abita beer: no comment.