June 5, 2015, Ithaca, New York — A delayed flight and missed connection stranded me in the Newark airport for nearly nine hours today, which meant I didn’t arrive in Ithaca until early evening (more than 24 hours after I left Oregon). I’d planned to spend the day at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, so this was kind of a bummer—but at least I landed with enough remaining daylight for about an hour of birding before bed.
Marshall Iliff, a project leader for eBird, and a visiting friend, Tim Spahr, picked me up and we went looking for American Woodcocks at dusk. As it happened, the woodcocks weren’t cooperative, but at least we heard a Wood Thrush and a Veery, saw a Great Black-backed Gull en route, and hooted up a Barred Owl in Cornell’s famous Sapsucker Woods after dark, so the day wasn’t a complete write-off.
I’ll spend this weekend in New York before heading east. Meanwhile, I’ve had about one hour of sleep in the past 48, so good night!
New birds today: 4
Year list: 2733
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