Pandemonium reigned today

[46er]

at Forsythe NWR-Brigantine Division in Oceanville. Word was, in the birder world, of a very rare visitor, normally found in the land of Oz, a Common Greenshank. I have never seen as many cars or people on the dikes, not even during Snowy Owl times, and these folks were possessed; speeding leaving huge clouds of dust, running, tripping, yelling. The refuge had to set up a radar trap for the speeders. Nutzville for sure, car's with plates from Maine, Ohio, Maryland, North Carolina, NY, CT, MA, Illinois. We found the bird, it was way out in the marsh, scope required, and pictures would be futile. Ho-hum, looked very much like a Greater Yellowlegs but larger and with greenish legs. If you decide to try for it, pack a weapon.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

I can't decide if that's funny or sad. I'm going to go with funny.

I was in Galveston several years ago and noted some sort of frenzy happening in the gulf. I asked around and found out that there was a lone flamingo in the water, with about 100 people with tripods and scopes literally surrounding it in the knee-deep water.

 

[Arey]

I was at the refuge yesterday afternoon and it wasn't crowded. There were more cars than usual on a weekday afternoon. I didn't see the greenshanks, but as I said to a passing birder who also hadn't seen it, If I actually saw the greenshanks would I know I was seeing the greenshanks or would I think I was seeing a yellowlegs with greenish yellow legs. Deep down underneath, I don't think I even wanted to see the greenshanks. After seeing the Brown Booby down in Cape May I had to evacuate because of Hurricane Irene which turned out to be a false alarm. After the influx of pine siskins into So, Jersey I had to evacuate because of Super-Storm Sandy and that wasn't a false alarm. So if I had seen the greenshanks Yesterday, every time I got up to go to the bathroom, I would also have been checking Intellicast to see if there were any tropical depressions, or possible hurricanes or nor'easters or super-storms about to disrupt my life again.

I just checked intellicast, for storm tracking map for Tropical Storm Phillippe. You'll never convince me that even If I had seen the dumb bird, tropical storm phillippe still would be not be headed straight for Atlantic Co.