Antidote to a Stressful Week: Friday Evening Birding Brings In Another Year Bird

       The stress of some work weeks can drain you emotionally such that all you want to do Friday afternoon is find your car, drive home and hide from the world .... unless you are a birder who has just received a text message about a special bird sighting (and a possible new addition to the year list) just five miles from where you live!  How quickly the mood can change.  All of a sudden, you feel energized again!  Shut down work mode and rev up your weekend engines!  Nature is the best cure all!  And we are off to get a bird! 

        Such was the case for me this past Friday.  I will spare you the details of my work week.  It is STILL the weekend and I refuse to think about work until Monday morning.  As I gloomily walked out to my car Friday, I read a text from my good birding buddy, Keith McCullough.  He had just spotted a Lark Sparrow at the Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve on the North end of Folly Beach.   He had sent the text at 1:20 pm.  It was now 5:30.  Could Carl and I still find the bird?  I called Carl.  Yes, he was on board, gathering up our cameras & birding gear so that we could leave as soon as I arrived at the house.  Then Keith and I texted back and forth as I was seeking more precise information as to where he had spotted the bird.  I also called my friend, Chris Snook, as I knew he would be banding birds there on Saturday morning.  He would want to know if a specialty bird were in the area!

         On our drive out to Folly, the beauty of the high tide in the salt marshes lit by the late afternoon sun lifted my spirits as my wearied emotions seemed to blow away out the car windows.  We finally reached our destination before 6:30 pm and began our walk into the preserve.  We knew Keith had spotted the bird towards the end of the road closer to the beach than to the Old Coast Guard building foundations.  The Lark Sparrow had been a life bird for us in the same location last year and so we were familiar with its feeding habits and its preference for short shrubs as well as feeding on grass seeds close to the ground.  Keith had also informed us of several warbler species that he had also seen that day.  Aside from Northern Mockingbirds, Northern Cardinals, and and a few Carolina Chickadees, the preserve seemed rather quiet.  We wondered if we had arrived too late in the evening.  Suddenly, Carl said that he thought he had just seen it -- it was an LBJ -- Little Brown Job -- a birder's code name for unidentified Sparrow.  Soon, he had his binoculars on it again and confirmed that yes, he had the bird.  I then located it and confirmed his ID!

Lark Sparrow -- Folly Beach -- Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve -- September 20, 2013

         We spent the next 20 minutes or so watching and photographing this active little bird.  Though beach goers frequently flushed him as they passed by, still he preferred to feed on the grass seed close to the road.

Lark Sparrow -- Folly Beach -- Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve -- September 20, 2013

Lark Sparrow -- Folly Beach -- Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve -- September 20, 2013

Lark Sparrow -- Folly Beach -- Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve -- September 20, 2013

         What great fun!  This proved to be the perfect antidote to my previously negative, weary frame of mind.  Thank you Keith, Carl and Mr. Lark Sparrow!   This was a great way to start my weekend -- dispel the work week weariness with a little birding and a cute little birdy!  For those of you searching for this bird, my banding friend Chris Snook reported to me today that unfortunately, he did not see it yesterday.  Perhaps it has already flown to destinations south.  Lark Sparrows, grassland breeders of the west and mid-west, are uncommon migrants on the East Coast.  I count myself lucky to have see one 2 years running!