Under the cover of darkness . . .

[Mark Stackhouse <westwings at sisna dot com>]

I sit here in the relative safety of my home bunker, having slipped in 
under the cover of darkness. Outside the enemy is everywhere, waiting, 
in numbers too great to count, waiting for a loss of concentration, a 
slip of the eye, a careless ear . . . I dare not venture out in 
daylight. I just completed an epic journey through perilous territory 
infested with the enemy, arriving by some miracle still unscathed at 
this safe haven.

If I can last just a few more days here, and again slip away in the 
dark back to friendly territory, maybe, just maybe, I can last into 
February with a year list of some hundreds of species that doesn't 
include a European Starling.

I started my journey the day before yesterday in San Blas, Nayarit, 
Mexico, with the goal once again of seeing how many birds I could see 
before having a starling on my list. Last year, under similar 
circumstances, starling was number 105 on the year list. My goal was to 
do better. I ensured that this would be the case by the morning's 
birding near San Blas on January first, when I saw 110 species. During 
the daylight portion of my journey north, I added another 41 species, 
for a Mexico list for 2006 of 151 so far. Luckily, darkness descended 
when I reached the portion of northern Mexico where starlings can be 
found, and I passed safely through Tucson and Phoenix during the night, 
stopping in the predawn hours to sleep in the desert north of Phoenix. 
The next morning (Tuesday) we continued north, adding new species to 
the list, and expecting that starling would soon be one of them.

At one point, while stretching our legs at a rest area south of 
Flagstaff, I thought the game was over when a large flock of small dark 
birds rocketed towards me low over the desert. I was relieved, however, 
to see as they passed that the whole flock was female Red-winged 
Blackbirds. Even while passing the outskirts of Flagstaff no starlings 
were in evidence. I began to practice starling-avoidance strategies, 
like not watching wires or the tops of trees near buildings, and trying 
to resist the temptation to immediately focus on everything flying. At 
Page, I took a perilous side trip to the sewage ponds, expecting a 
starling to surely be there. However, none were in evidence, and I 
added a number of other new birds, including a first-year 
Glaucous-winged Gull. Throughout southern Utah we passed starling-less 
until reaching Beaver, where my daughter alertly called out, "Uh, Dad, 
. . . don't look into the tree trees to the left."

I pressed forward with my eyes firmly on the road (maybe a first for 
me).

Arizona added another 17 species to the list without any starlings, and 
Utah another 5 before the safety of the night fell again at Nephi, 
covering the remainder of the trip into Salt Lake City. I now have a 
year list of 173 species, and still don't have a starling. I head back 
to Mexico in a few days - if I can avoid starling until then, I won't 
have another chance to see one until the end of February, and by then I 
should have a year list of 500-600.

With a little luck, it might be possible . . .

Good (and hopefully not TOO obsessive) birding!

Mark

Mark Stackhouse
www.westwings.com
mark@westwings.com
801-487-9453 (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA)
011-52-323-285-1243 (San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico)


Mark Stackhouse
Westwings, Inc.
www.westwings.com
mark@westwings.com
801-487-9453 (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA)
011-52-323-285-1243 (San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico)

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