A few months back I wrote a post entitled "The Rarest bird I am ever going to see in Rhode Island.
http://southernnewenglandoutdoors.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-rarest-bird-i-am-ever-going-to-see.html
It turns out I was wrong. A bird just as rare as June's Terek Sandpiper showed up at Snake Den today. The bird that showed up is a Common Cuckoo. Common in Europe and common in Africa where it winters, but not common in the USA. Common Cuckoo has only been seen twice in the United States before today. One in 2012 and the other in 1981! Al Schenck found it this morning and reported it after he realized what it could be. Within an hour Snake Den was a zoo. Dozens of birders descended on the small parking lot.
I got to see the bird today for about an hour. This is about fifty nine minutes and twenty seconds longer than I got to see the Terek's Sandpiper in June. I took what turned out to be 220 photos. I easily deleted three quarters of them when I went through them. I got lucky with a couple of dozen or so.
From what I have learned, the Common Cuckoo prefers open country. It does summer in Europe where the population is rising in Scotland and it winters in Africa. How it got here is anyone's guess. The poor bird was exhausted. The good news is it ate throughout the day. I personally saw it eat a huge nightcrawler and caterpillars. I don't know what the fate of this bird will be. If it can tolerate Scotland in the spring, then the weather this week should be tolerable. I can only hope for the best.
Many more photos below-
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