A Rare Bird Indeed- Northern Wheatear

Since I had the luck of finding the Blue Grosbeak yesterday, I thought I'd try my luck for the northern
wheatear at Wachusett Reservoir. There have been reports of the Wheatear since Thursday. To be completely honest, I had never heard of this species of bird until the reports came in. Then the whole birding world was a buzz. Many of the expert birders in New England went to see it, since most hadn't. It is that rare of a find.

I did a little research and found out this species mostly lives in Europe. It winters in West Africa. There are some in Alaska and northern Labrador, but they are considered rare on the East coast.

I figured I had nothing to do after work so I took the hour ride to Wachusett. I went to Gate 37 and walked to the water then went left. There was one other birder there. He was a guy about 22 taking pictures. He showed me the bird. So in two days I had two life birds. However, this one is much rarer than yesterday's Grosbeak. I was pretty happy.

The two of us spent an hour getting pictures of the Wheatear. It was very cooperative. It let us get within about 25 feet of it. We didn't get too close to change its behavior. We watched it hunt many times for insects. It seemed very comfortable with us around. Since it has been at there, many birders from all over have come to see it. I heard it even made the newspaper. So as you can imagine, it got used to people really quickly.

After about an hour, others started showing up. I didn't want to stress the bird so I left. My new friend, Josh, told me some American Pipits were just down the rocks. So I followed him. We saw the Pipits and Savannah Sparrows. The sparrows were first of the year birds, and the Pipits were another LIFER!