Chasing rare birds may be the most exciting aspect of local birding. It is a race against time and the elements, with an outcome that can be determined by something as minor as the serendipity of the target to swim a few feet to the left (or walk over a hillock or fly to the other side of a fence). But if you move with alacrity and launch your search as soon as possible after learning of the sighting, you do have a good chance of success. Generally, the decision to chase is motivated by a desire to add to some list you keep- life, ABA, state, or even county, city, or favorite site. (Some lists are temporal in nature- the year list being the most commonly kept.)
In late May Jon Wuepper found a lone fish crow in Berrien County, Michigan. This was the first time the species had been recorded from the state. But a few days ago Allen Chartier of suburban Detroit discovered a flock of fish crows in the same area, adjacent to the Indiana line. This prompted people from both states to have a look. I do not keep a Michigan list but I do have one for Indiana, although I am not compulsive about it the way I am for Illinois. But I also have a strong interest in a geographic area- the Chicago region, comprised of nine counties in Illinois, six in Indiana, three in Wisconsin, and one in Michigan (Berrien). So these fish crows were not only the first for Michigan, they represented the first confirmed records for the region and the first for northern Indiana (Ken Brock tells me they are 200 miles north of any previous sighting in the state).
My friend Tim Wallace and I decided to look for the birds yesterday. In this case the challenge wasn’t only locating the birds but trying to find them in Indiana. (Fortunately, Tim’s car has a GPS unit.) The site is near the town of Hesston, Indiana, which seems to consist of a supper club (which looks very nice), grocery store, and a couple of fireworks outlets. Indiana birders had seen the crows on Rt 215 E, just a short ways into Indiana. We did not find them there so we decided to circumvent the area where the birds had been seen.
Proceeding not much farther north into Michigan we came across a huge dump with many hundreds of gulls (mostly ring-bills) and 120 or so turkey vultures, the largest number I have ever seen in the area. There were a few crows but it was impossible to hear them even if they were vocalizing. Eventually, the dump ended and we heard the crows from some trees. One bird flew out calling, followed by likely brethren but they were silent. After walking around for a while, we decided to give up on the crows until later in the day. (I did notice that the property owner adjacent to where the crows were had a bumper sticker on his/her late model Cadillac that said, “My dog is smarter than your honor student.” At least it lacked the suggestion of violence so often associated with such sentiment.)
When we returned, we had passed the morning crow site and were deeper into Michigan when we heard the crows again. This time several birds flew into a field calling so we had good prolonged views. (They were lifers for Tim) It was satisfying finding the crows- but frustrating that we never saw them closer than a quarter of a mile from Indiana.
Dump in Berrien County, Michigan close to the fish crow site. Photo by Tim Wallace.
