A Rainy First Day 1/1/07

I was awakened this morning at 7:00am by the sound of horizontal rain hitting the bedroom window. It was then I knew this was going to be a tough day to start the Big Year. My plan for the day had been to hit all the bird rarities that were still hanging around Delmarva. There is a Northern Shrike at Prime Hook, Eurasian Wigeon in West Ocean City, and Tropical Kingbird in Somerset County, but with the bad weather this plan had to be scrapped. The rain slackened around 11:00am so my girlfriend and I hit the road. We decided to go straight after the Tropical Kingbird. By 12:15pm we had arrived at the Kingbird spot and the rain had stopped but the bird was nowhere to be seen. After only a few minutes we heard the bird call and soon spotted it hawking for insects amoung the trees. We hoped the bird would come closer to the road allowing for better photos but we soon got tired of waiting and with the approaching weather we decided to head for Ocean City. By the time we got to the Ocean City inlet the wind was blowing extremely hard and the rain was coming down in sheets. The only acceptable photo I took was of a Rock Pigeon hanging out in the inlet parking lot. The rest of the afternoon was a compete washout. There were birds around but it was raining too hard for photography. It was not the opening day that I had hoped for but I did get photos of one of the three rarities. To see the photos taken today click on the Delmarva Photo Big Year link to the right.