Sometimes you can have a great day of birding without seeing many birds. Today was one of those days, but the story actually began yesterday. I was at the NY Botanical Garden, ending a good day by finding a Winter wren. Two guys came up the trail, saw me and the bird and asked in a foreign accent if it was a Carolina. I explained, and then we started talking. Turns out they are two Danish guys…Kel and Christopher… stopping over in NY for a few days on their way to a birding vacation in Trinidad and Tobago. They will be in NY for one more day and asked for advice on where to go. I suggest Croton Point Park, which they can reach by train. And if they are interested, I can meet them there and show them the park. So that’s what I did today…spend a day birding with two complete strangers from Denmark who I had only known for about five minutes, and I had a blast. Except for the species that they already saw in NYC, everything was new to them, and they were still enjoying the species that they saw over the past few days. I had a few targets in mind for them, and miraculously the birds cooperated, with these guys seeing their first four bald eagles within 5 minutes of leaving the Croton train station and high fives passed all around. At one point I promised them that the next new birds we see would be Red-breasted nuthatches (what was I thinking?), and of course that’s what happened. As they were taking photos of the nuthatches I called them over and pointed out a Barred Owl perched in plain sight (we looked for it in that same area earlier in the day but came up empty), at which point they nearly lost control. Having eventually run out of new species likely for them to see, I asked if they ever saw a Killdeer. The answer was no, and it turns out that for Kel that was a species that he really wanted. I took them to the baseball field, and there were 4 Killdeer. I never saw anybody so happy at finding one of our common species, and they immediately annointed me as master birding guide. I don’t know who had more fun…these guys seeing new birds, or me getting the opportunity to show them. Either way, it’s hard to think of a birding day that I enjoyed more. So thanks to Kel and Christopher.
Mar 172013