Montrose 10/27

I got home early from a trip for work today, so I checked my birding message board and then headed out to Montrose to see what I could see. There were kinglets, golden-crowned and ruby-crowned, a hermit thrush, some robins, a downy woodpecker, many yellow-rumped warblers and a few others. There was a storm coming in, so it was drizzling rain a little and the storm ended up out over the lake. I saw one really good streak of lightning over the lake which was very cool. So while I was birding, there was a wren that kept taunting me and I eventually got a few pictures of him, but they're not good at all. It's a House Wren I'm pretty sure, so that's actually the first time I've seen one of those. Wrens are fairly shy.

After seeing that I headed out to the beach and saw this:

Strangely enough, there WAS a jackpot at the end of that rainbow. Literally where the rainbow is pointing, there were these little guys:

Sorry the pictures aren't any good. They just kept running and it was dusk and overcast and my poor camera just couldn't keep up. These are Snow Buntings and I think they are just gorgeous!!! I was so, SO excited about seeing them. I was within a few feet of them. They actually behaved a bit like shorebirds that keep running up and down the beach so you can never get a decent picture. They really are beautiful, though. So on the way home I was so happy because I've been wanting to see a Snow Bunting for a couple of years now. I was thinking about how I was going to call Mom and be so happy and explain to her all about the pretty, adorable Snow Buntings. So happy. Just to clarify.

So I get home, and I check the message boards to see if any one else had seen the Snow Buntings because I wanted to post about it. I knew they'd been around, so this wasn't going to be major news, but I wanted to post my pictures and brag a little. I check the boards and I see a post that I hadn't checked before. Turns out that in the harbor there had been a sighting of a Common Gallinule (a species recently separated out from the Common Moorhen). It's a type of rail and it has only been spotted twice (TWICE) at Montrose in the last THIRTY YEARS. Seriously. I had briefly perused the harbor and hadn't seen it, but then, I didn't know it was there and apparently he was hiding in the walls of the harbor. It's not like that message wasn't on the boards when I checked them before I left. I just missed it. GAH!!!! The most recent sighting was within 30 minutes of when I got there and was looking at the harbor birds (of which there were none). Seriously? My previous snow bunting-fueled elation was entirely deflated. I had been SO happy, and then I was just...pth. To be fair, Gallinules (and Moorhens) are not uncommon. They're just uncommon at Montrose. Apparently they're all over the place in South Carolina. I just have to drive 14 hours to go see one. Ridiculous. I'm going to get up early tomorrow and head over to see if he's still there. We had a big storm tonight, so I'm hoping he stays in the harbor and is still there in the morning.

So anyway, to put it in perspective, I DID add two birds to my life list today and the Snow Buntings really are gorgeous :)