Sunday, February 10, 2008

White-crested Elaenia still present.

After I got home last night I had so much adrenaline pumping through my veins that it was impossible to sleep. Back in 1989 when I lived in Arizona I found the first Pine Warbler for Arizona. It was pretty exciting when Kenn Kaufman and others came out to document it. In 1992 I found the 3rd US record of Crescent-chested Warbler in Patagonia. That bird hung around for six months and returned the following winter for two more months. What fun trying to help the big listers add one more tick. But this one was different. When I found the Elaenia I immediately knew I had a first ABA record. That's pretty much the Holy Grail for birders. It was thrilling and at the same time it was nauseating. What If I've screwed this up? Maybe it's a big Least Flycatcher with some albinism on his head? What if no one else sees it? Arghh! Well I did screw up the ID. The only thing that seemed reasonable was Yellow-bellied Elaenia. I'm thankful we have birders around like Martin Reid who are not afraid to leave the country and gain some international experience. His call of White-crested Elaenia seems to be the consensus.

Here's a link to Martins Pics and a recording of the call.
http://www.martinreid.com/Main%20website/wcelaenia.html

Here's a link to Eric Bredens fine pics.
www.otterside.com/winter2008

Anyway I didn't make it out there today. I guess the bird ws really cooperative. But I was suffering from an Elaenia hangover. And I didn't even drink anything!

3 comments:

Carolyn Ohl-Johnson said...

Congratulations big time! I can only imagine your excitement!

Mel said...

I'm in the little leagues... Nothing like you (yet?), I get excited everytime I learn about a bird and find it, with my simple-sony-cybershot-7.1mp I'm slowly learning with the help of great bird lovers and the motivation of posts like yours.
I add your link on my blog, thanks for your nice comment! If you plan to come to Peru, please contact me, maybe I can help you with some stuff :)
Good luck with the next great finding!
Mel
http://teach-me-birdwatching.blogspot.com/

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