Last night and this morning I was having a feeling we might get a good bird in the county today. For some reason I was thinking it would happen at Turtle Bay, but instead it was at Skinner Lane, where I located a WHIMBREL in the rain around 7:30 this morning. I was super pumped; I put the word out and several birders were able to run for the bird. Rob Stone, John Haas, Karen Miller, Kathy Ashman, and Bruce Nott all saw the bird while I was still there; it was a lifer for both Kathy and Bruce. Clay Spencer reported the bird in the late morning as well. Whimbrel is a bird I have daydreamed of finding in our area for a while, and it is the 252nd bird on my Orange County life list.
Great find Matt! Thanks so much for getting the word out! New county bird for me as well. The great streak of birding continues! John
Glad you could run for it John, and yes the good birding continues. Now if the Spoonbill would set up camp in front of the Liberty Loop viewing platform…
Nice find Matt! Paula and I were over early this afternoon to get a look. Personal state and county first. Thanks for getting word out. Great bird!
Scotty
Oh that’s awesome Scotty. I’m glad that bird stuck around – most were saying it would likely be gone quickly. Matt
OUTSTANDING find Matt. I got to see it about 5:30pm. It was my second in Orange County and the last one was seven years ago this month when, during the flooding of the black dirt area, Danny Messina and I had one come in and land off of Missionland Road. That bird stayed for only about three minutes and flew away, this guy had been most accommodating! THANKS! Now dream that a WOOD STORK comes in over the night!!!!
I’m so glad you got to see the bird, Ken. I’ll be out this morning, eyes open for Wood Stork…
Great find. My early morning walk in Romania produced little owl and green woodpecker.
Ha! That’s excellent Bruce. Romanian birding, sweet. Matt