Flashback to January 12, 2006 ...

... Wheatley Harbor, Ontario, Canada.  Yes, the same general location where I viewed the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.  For those unacquainted with this part of Ontario, Wheatley Harbour is a major freshwater commercial fishing port on Lake Erie.  I was with friends Steve Sanford and Gail Franz who drove together from Baltimore, Maryland for this event.  Steve and Gail stayed the night with me and then very early on January 12th we drove to Ontario to see, for all of us, our life Ivory Gull (Pagophila eburnea).  We stopped for breakfast at the McDonald's in Windsor just across the Ambassador Bridge.

We spent a significant part of our search at Hillman Marsh Conservation Area, where the bird had been most recently reported, sifting through thousands of gulls.  I thought, oh no, Steve and Gail drove all this way and we are going dip on this bird.  Then a stroke of luck.  We ran into another birder who, at the time, I knew well and still would know well, just haven't seen him in ten years - Andy Dettling.  Hmmm.  Andy is here.  We might have a chance to see this bird.  

In those days there was no such thing as a smart phone with apps that reported minute-by-minute sightings.  I had a little flip phone but it's unlikely that I had coverage in Canada.  So, how we were alerted to the change of venue I can't remember.  But I do remember that it was Andy who found us, or we found him, and he told us or we told him, that the Ivory Gull was being seen at Wheatley Harbor.  Now I could have this wrong, because I also have a vague memory of looking for and finding Andy asleep in his car.  That part of this story will remain a mystery.  

I had done quite a lot of birding in this part of Ontario and, as it happened, I had recently visited Wheatley Harbor.  I knew where it was located.  We loaded up in my little 1999 Toyota RAV-4, I got my bearings (no Google maps in those days either) and we flew low down a, fortunately, well-graded dirt road and wove our way to Wheatley Harbor.  We easily found the breakwater; the telltale sign of birders lined up with spotting scopes.  We walked along the breakwater (I think it had a narrow paved top that made walking possible) and there was the bird.  I don't recall if Andy was already there or if he arrived shortly afterwards.     

Above and below are photos that I took with a tiny, silver beginner's Nikon camera purchased second hand from birding neighbors for $50.  Cheap digital cameras were just then in their most rudimentary form.

I probably shouldn't reveal this but, in the photo above, that's Andy crawling on his belly (he had a nice, big lens Canon) and the white speck just in front of the rocks, that's the Ivory Gull. 

Above and below, digiscoping in its infancy.  I'm quite sure that these three photos are my very first attempts.  I never did improve much beyond this.

  

I no longer do this kind of chasing.  Well, for a reasonably nearby Ross's Gull I might.  I'll always remember this as such a great day.  A completely different era of birding for me.