My Life Kirtland’s Warbler (i.e., Life Is Good At MBS)

My $75 registration fee was just returned in spades. During one of the early morning talks at MBS today, my cell phone vibrated with a very curious message: “Kirtland’s Warbler at East Harbor State Park, Meadow Trail.”

At that point, I had to bail on the fine and illustrious speaker, Jim McCormac, because I knew he’d understand.

I picked up Su Snyder, who’s great at ferreting out rarities, and her friend Bianca and we tore (I mean, drove calmly, slowly, and obeyed all traffic signals) over to East Harbor (EHSP).

About a dozen or so people gathered at the Meadow Trail. The bird had been seen only 3 minutes earlier. But we struck OUT. We skulked around in the heat for another hungry ninety minutes before bailing for lunch.

“He’ll be back,” predicted more than one birder.

So I went back, inhaled my turkey wrap, and attended another talk given by a fine and illustrious speaker, Jeff Gordon.

Lo and behold, another buzz comes from an attendee’s pocket with a News Flash: “Kirtland’s Warbler was seen 3 minutes ago.” He was kind enough to share the news. I shuffled in my seat for a few polite but arduous minutes before grabbing my friend and going.

This time, it took almost no effort to see the bird. Festival organizers had marked the trail and had planted a naturalist guide, Dan Donaldson from Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District, there to help people.

We turned a corner and there it was in a small copse of trees, flitting about in a locust.

There were “ooohs” and “ahhhs,” there were high fives, there were even tears in the group, along with several shutter snaps from eager photographers, myself included.

The bird struck several awesome poses, one of which I captured in my lens.

We celebrated with a Life Bird Tic-Tac.

Life is GOOOOOD.

More when I can. I just had to get this up!