Potential Common Cuckoo at The Vineyards Golf & Country Club

[Keith Klein]

I was just wrapping up a survey at Hallockville Farm trying for my first DICKCISSEL of the season (Nope! Didn't happen) when the phone was going bananas with alerts for an extremely rare Cuckoo species nearby at The Vineyards Golf Course. While I was less than 10 minutes away from my CHEESEBURGER dinner at home in Laurel, the pin for the bird was also only about 10 minutes away...so no-brainer, I went for the bird!

Arrived at the site and soon thereafter met up with NOFO birders, Jay & Ben as well as local ladies, Jeanne & Mary Beth. A great birder who recently found an UPLAND SANDPIPER and a HARRIS's SPARROW a couple years back, Mike Cooper joined the fun. 

No luck at the pin provided from the Bird Finders APP but we persisted working the Western perimeter of the golf course for about a half hour. Things were looking bleak and the sun was just setting when Jay called out that he was on it! Holy cow. Bonkers! Is this really happening? A few of us quickly focused on the bird with bins, scopes and cameras and documented what we could. It was refound in the same spot as the original pin. Coordinates as follows:

40.949868, -72.684959

While access is tough and questionable due to the golf course being private property and the need to cut through a farmers cornfield, hopefully it will stick around so people can try to navigate a more appropriate viewing spot. 

Here's a link to my report: https://ebird.org/checklist/S281014892

For now, it's been labeled Cuckoo "species" as apparently The COMMON CUCKOO is almost inseparable in field marks from the ORIENTAL CUCKOO, which I just learned today. I'm hoping it can be confirmed at the species level! 

Good luck if you go.

Keith