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| Bluetail sketch |
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It has not been your
typical winter here in the L-C Valley this season. We got snow in the early
part of December. Not a great deal of it, mind you, but enough to cover the
ground, soften the noise, make getting around a little interesting and enough
to give us a winter wonderland we don’t normally experience. Then it got cold
and stayed that way, so the snow lingered through Christmas. As if this wasn’t
enough, our little community and Lewiston, Idaho in particular, has now become
somewhat famous. You see, a little bird landed here sometime in December that
has caused quite a bit of craziness as of late and turned our normally dull,
gray winter days into subtle shades of olive green, orange-yellow and beautiful
blue.
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| Female red-flanked bluetail |
As the story goes
(and you may have heard it by now) a local birder was doing a
raptor survey in Hell’s Gate State Park on Dec. 26th. Somewhere in
the process of that he found this little bird in a stand of Russian olive trees
along the river. What caught his attention was the flash of blue, though she
was not marked like any bluebird he knew of. Curious, he spent the next few
hours trying to get a photograph to try and put a name to this unusual bird. As
it turned out the only bird that fit was one called a red-flanked bluetail. And
that’s when things got really interesting!
In the world of bird
watching occasionally a bird will turn up in a place that is out of its normal
range. They have wings after all, and can and do fly great distances, sometimes
thousands of miles during migration. Sometimes, however, they get turned
around, blown off course by a storm or maybe they just decide to see some place
new and end up in our backyards. That’s called a “rare bird sighting” and if
it’s reported to such places as E-bird on the internet, bells and whistles and
whiz-bangers go off in cyberspace and a rare bird alert goes out. Those of us
that follow that sort of thing get a notification that says, “RARE BIRD! RARE
BIRD!” and all of our good sense flies right out the window as a form of
madness sets in. We must see this bird! Right away! Don’t delay!
Within hours of it
being reported good folks from all over were hearing that a red-flanked
bluetail had shown up in Lewiston, Idaho. She (the bird is female) was not
supposed to be here. She was very, very far off course and was, in fact,
supposed to be wintering somewhere in South East Asia, some place warm, not
someplace like Idaho in the midst of a kind of winter we haven’t seen in a
while. Also within hours of the report those same good folks were jumping in
their cars and driving long distances on treacherous roads, through nasty
winter weather to get a once-in-a-lifetime look at this rare beauty. Birds like
her had only been recorded in the lower 48 states about three times and NEVER
this far inland. She was a rare bird, indeed.
The first few days of
her sighting were crazy. Despite the bad weather dozens of people were showing
up every day. They came with binoculars, spotting scopes and cameras of every
make, model and size to get a glimpse and a photographic record of her being
here. They were coming from all around the Northwest at first, then, as she
lingered, they started coming from all over the country. Large groups of people
could be seen staring intently at the tangle of Russian olives she had chosen
to hide in. At first, she was quite shy and would only come out of hiding
briefly. When she did those same groups of people would scamper back and forth
jockeying for position for the best views and photo ops. I’m sure from the birds’
perspective it was quite amusing to see what she could make us silly humans do.
She has been here
nearly two weeks now and has been seen by dozens of bird watchers and nature
lovers from all over. There’s a path worn in the snow to the spot she stays in
and she is getting more used to her multitudes of admirers, coming out to pose
on a branch in the sunshine or foraging for insects and Russian olives along
the river’s edge. It has been great fun to host her, to be able to meet with
and talk to in person some people you’ve only known from interactions you’ve
had over the internet. As we pass one another from the parking lot to her
sanctuary the question is, “Have you seen the bluetail today? Is she still
here?” Then come the questions of whether we’re local people or what part of
the country we’ve traveled from, introductions and hand-shakes and “so YOU’RE
Catherine! I’m Ben, Blair, Paul, Maire" (or whomever else I’ve met and I’m glad
to have met you in person!).
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| Showing off her pretty blue tail. |
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Interesting how one
little bird can change so many things, from brightening up a dreary winter
landscape to bringing people together from every political, economic, or educational
background. We’ve happily come together and forgotten all our differences to
share a common interest and focus on a rare little lady.
Is this madness? Yes. Bluetail madness!
And I hope it lasts.
