Recently I wrote two blog posts for 10,000 Birds. After seeing the Terek Sandpiper in Finland on May 23rd, I wrote There's a Shorebird on the Roof. Then, sometime around mid-July, I received my copy of the ABA birding magazine (Vol. 57, No. 4, July 2025) and was spellbound by Lost on the Frontier by Brad Meiklejohn (pages 30-45). You can read the article with an ABA membership. After seeing the Siberian Tit in Finland, I was deeply saddened and wrote Missing the Gray-headed Chickadee. Not all birders are members of the ABA and 10,000 Birds is an international birding site. I felt a personal urgency to get this news out.
After this is when things got all jumbled up.
On the morning of Friday, August 1st, I logged into the ABA Community site, and learned that a Terek Sandpiper had been seen on Buldir Island in the western Aleutians on July 21st by birder Nick Ramsey and his friends. The photos he posted are beautiful. I read his write-up and remember thinking, this is the way to see and enjoy a Terek Sandpiper. After a busy day I capped it off with a documentary movie titled Folktales about Norway kids doing a gap year. I liked the movie and, as I was driving home, I was thinking that I should email the details of this movie to our Finland/Norway guide, Anttu. Then I remembered, no, he's from Finland - even though the movie takes place in Finnmark. In the movie a couple of bird vocalizations could be heard here and there (I recognized a thrush's song) and one scene showed a Siberian Jay perched at the top of a conifer tree; however, it was not a movie about birds or birding. I didn't email Anttu. I slept pretty well that night, somewhat uncommon for me. I was aware of some dreaming, but that's about it.
Early Saturday morning, August 2nd, I was semi-awake from 4:00 - 5:00 am, but then fell back to sleep. Then I remember that I opened my eyes and the clock read 6:20. I fell back to sleep again and began dreaming. I dreamed that I was stopped at a gas station and was speaking with someone (it wasn't clear who) and I happened to glance over at a pond that was adjacent to the gas station. I saw a male breeding plumaged King Eider paddling calmly next to a Mallard. Oh my god, oh my god, still in my olden days thinking, I have to call someone. Again a lot of fumbling around. Who should I call? I had no birders' numbers in my phone and I couldn't think of anyone's name. I kept watching the little King Eider swim placidly along. Wait, what am I thinking, I have the Discord app. Oh, but I'll need a photo. I began the process of trying to get a photo with my iPhone's terrible camera, reminding myself that it doesn't need to be a good photo, just recognizable. As I was trying for the photo, I was also trying to think of my Discord password. And so it went ... by this time I knew I was dreaming and forced myself to wake up. My cat was staring at me. Feed me, she said. It was 8:00 am and the King Eider was gone.
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