Nature Done Wright

Note: I have previously posted the following account of the 2003 assault on the Hour on the Tower record, but recently realized that the ending (with the surprise twist and complete bird lists) had been inadvertently deleted. Here is the entire account:

I found the following entry in my journal from October 2003 and thought I would share it, for what it's worth. It's the story of the Hour on the Tower crew's attempt to be the previous Celery Farm record for species seen in an hour, held by Stiles Thomas, Gordon Schultze and Charlie Mayhood.

The 2003 attempt was likely one of the first times that the Hour on the Tower was held at Pirie Platform [renamed the Pirie-Mayhood Tower on June 6, 2015]. I post the account virtually verbatim.

This past weekend's Hour on the Tower was supposed to be huge. Stiles predicted the day before [Saturday, Oct. 4] that we had a shot at beating the record — 42 species spotted or heard (and confirmed) from the platform between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. on a Sunday.

Stiles, ever the field marshal, decided the best strategy was to observe from the Pirie Platform because ducks were on the move and one typically sees more ducks from the Pirie.

So when the troops arrived on Sunday, a sign awaited them at the Warden's Watch — HOUR ON TOWER IS – AT PIRIE PLATFORM — topped off with a drawing of a duck the likes of which you would have seen on a junior high school boy's notepad if he drew waterfowl instead of racing cars and fighter jets.

I arrived at the Pirie precisely at 8, which meant that I was late and all the good spots were taken. Birding is serious business, especially when you are racing against time, and birders would no sooner show up at game time than a baseball player or football player would. You have to get ready, warm up, prepare.

Rest of story follows.

When the birding began, we saw ducks by the bucketful — Green-winged Teal, Wood Ducks, wigeons, shovelers, Ruddies, Pied-billed Grebes. We saw hawks — Sharpies, Cooper's, Red-tail, Red-shouldered, Marsh Hawk — plus a bevy of other birds.

Many were seen, but many were identified by ear. At the end of the hour, we had 41 species and a raccoon (the latter being my main contribution). Karel, who has a great sense of hearing, said she heard coots, a nuthatch and a mockingbird but we were unable to confirm.

The stopwatch stopped, and we were one shy of the record. Less than 30 seconds later, the Osprey we had been hoping for (and which had been seen regularly in the weeks before) showed up as big as you please.

On the way out, Stiles saw the mockingbird, and as Rob Fanning and I paused at the Warden's Watch, we saw two coots and a nuthatch, which would have brought the total to 45.

Birds, however, don't know from clocks.

*

As it turned out, too bad that birders don’t know from counting.

For posterity’s sake, this lesser yellow scribe thought it would be instructive to print the record-setting list from 1990, along with the list from October 5, 2003.

What exotic birds were seen? What birds were seen both years? And, curiously, what common birds – like wagtails, manikins, and auks – had managed to elude the birders’ watchful eyes?

Then came the bombshell: As this journalist transcribed the list, he discovered that the anonymous bird counter on that 1990 Sunday had done the unthinkable. He had counted the same species twice. It is bad enough to count one’s chickens before they hatch; to count one’s chickens inaccurately after they’ve hatched is simply not done.

That’s the way life works. Sometimes things aren’t always what they were cracked up to be. The 1990 record was actually 41 species, and the 2003 upstart team had tied it – albeit with more than twice as many eyes.

Thus, instead of trudging from the platform with those so-close-yet-so-far grimaces, the October 5 birders could have been celebrating and giving each other medium-fives (high-fives being reserved only for record-setting performances).

The alleged record-setting 42 species, 9/9/90:

Observers: Charles Mayhood, Gordon Schultze, Stiles Thomas

1. Moorhen 2. Green-winged Teal 3. American Crow 4. Wood Duck 5. Blue-winged Teal 6. Great Blue Heron 7. Northern Flicker 8. Belted Kingfisher 9. Eastern Kingbird 10. Eastern Phoebe 11. Gadwall 12. Barn Swallow 13. Goldfinch 14. Killdeer 15. Blue Jay 16. Great Blue Heron 17. Eastern Screech Owl 18. Black-capped Chickadee 19. American Kestrel 20. Downy Woodpecker 21.Gray Catbird 22. Mallard 23. Common Grackle 24. Starling 25. Yellow-Throat 26. Osprey 27. Mourning Dove 28. House Finch 29. Song Sparrow 30. Canada Goose 31. Black-Crowned Night Heron 32. American Robin 33. Rose-breasted Grosbeak 34. Chimney Swift 35. Great Egret 36. Cedar Waxwing 37. Wigeon 38. Sandpiper 39. American Black Duck 40. Sharp-Shinned Hawk 41. Mockingbird 42. Bobolink.

The record-tying Hour of 41 species 10/5/2003

Observers: Malcolm Chesworth, Rob Fanning, Karul Kassel, David Leeman, Stiles Thomas, Kevin Watson, et al.

1. Mourning Dove
2. Starling
3. Gadwall
4. White-throated Sparrow
5. Gray Catbird
6. Downy Woodpecker
7. Mute Swan
8. DC Cormorant
9. American Wigeon
10. Wood Duck
11. Northern Shoveler
12. Canada Goose
13. Eastern Phoebe
14. Palm Warbler
15. Red-winged Blackbird
16.Common Grackle
17. Red-tailed Hawk
18. Cooper's Hawk
19. Ring-billed Gull
20. Winter Wren
21. Tufted Titmouse
22. Carolina Wren
23. American Crow
24. Am. Kestrel
25. Black-capped Chickadee
26. American Goldfinch
27. Northern Harrier
28. Red-bellied Woodpecker
29. Northern Flicker
30. Northern Cardinal
31. Green-winged Teal
32. Mallard
33. Pied-billed Grebe
34. House Sparrow
35. Red-shouldered Hawk
36. Chimney Swift
37. Swamp Sparrow
38. Great Blue Heron
39. Belted Kingfisher
40. Ruddy Duck
41. Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Duplicates from both hours (21): Green-winged Teal, American Crow, Mourning Dove, Wood Duck, Great Blue Heron, Belted Kingfisher, Canada Goose, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Am. Wigeon, Gray Catbird, Common Grackle, Northern Flicker, Eastern Phoebe, Gadwall, Goldfinch, Black-capped Chickadee, Kestrel, Downy Woodpecker, Mallard, Chimney Swift, Great White-Crowned Thomas.