Last Road Trip of 2023

On Saturday, December 30th myself and two friends decided to take our last birding road trip of 2023. There was a rare bird on Long Island and a mega-rarity near the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Both were about 90 minutes from Brooklyn. The challenge was that one bird was 90 minutes south-west of us, while the other was 90 minutes due east. The weather forecast called for some early sunshine, but mostly overcast and cold. We had talked about this chase all week and decided to go for it.

The main prize we were hoping to find was a Red-flanked Bluetail that a guy in Whiting, NJ spotted at his bird feeder. I wasn't familiar with this species and, as it turned out, neither was nearly every one of my birding friends. The reason being that this is its normal range:

Red-flanked Bluetail range

There have been several sighting of this species on the west coast over the years, mostly in Alaska. The individual found in Whiting, New Jersey would be the first for northeastern North America.

The second bird was a Mountain Bluebird spotted at Heckscher State Park at East Islip in Suffolk County. Michelle volunteered to drive and would pick up Angela, then myself a little past 6:00am. We were hoping to be at the bluetail stakeout close to sunrise. This map will give you and idea of how far we'd have to travel.

If you are a long time reader of my blog, you'd likely have noticed that, back-in-the-day, I made a lot of long day trips to chase rarities. It's been a while and I was really looking forward to it.

When we walked up to the backyard of the home "hosting" the bluetail there were a few birders already gathered. They mentioned getting great views of the bird earlier.

After a moment, one of the birders then pointed out the long distance visitor perched on a low branch in the shadow of a yew tree. This was the best of my not so great photos:

Easy, peasy! We stuck around for a few more minutes trying to get some better photos, then it was back to the car for our next bird. Before heading back north, we toasted our first win with celebratory cupcakes.

It was almost too easy. There was virtually no traffic for the two plus hour drive to Long Island. Once we got close to the next spot, we briefly struggled to figure out the most recent bluebird sighting location within this 1,600 acre park. We quickly spotted several birders riveted to a spot in the grass adjacent to the bicycle path. Michelle slowed the car to a crawl as we passed them. The bluebird was patiently standing in the grass a few yards from the edge of the road!

We parked the car about 150 yards away and rushed back to the spot. In retrospect, it was completely unnecessary to run as the Mountain Bluebird was incredible cooperative. It frequently perched on low posts that marked the edges of the bike path, scanning for prey. It would then drop down into the grass, grab an insect, then return to the post to devour it:

Mountain Bluebird, Heckscher SP, East Islip

Mountain Bluebird, Heckscher SP, East Islip

Chasing after rare birds can be exhausting, but the fun and camaraderie makes it all worth the effort...especially when successful. Big thanks to Michelle and Angela for making my last bird trip of 2023 so great. If you'd like to read more about the Red-flanked Bluetail, here's a link to a very good article.