Newtonian Fall-Out: Wedge-Rumped Storm-Petrel

     Earlier this week a former hurricane named Newton made land-fall on the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. The path was forecast to carry it into Sonora and then across the border into Arizona. Birders in the Southeastern part of the state were ready to see what the storm would blow in, but nobody expected what really happened. The AZNM Listserv came alive with announcements of Storm-Petrels and Shearwaters at Patagonia Lake State Park. And then at water treatment ponds closer to Tucson and finally Petrels and other seabirds were seen flying over yards. Since I was up in Gilbert and was responsible for getting the kids to and from school, there was no way that I could make the trip down and resigned myself to watching the emails and looking at photos on Facebook.
     But that changed Thursday morning when a report of a Storm-Petrel at a suburban park's pond came over the listserv. It was so close, barely a dozen miles from me, and hundreds of miles from the other reports. I was literally walking into my son's preschool to collect him when I saw the message. The only problem was that Thursday was his gymnastics day, which was bad news. The good news was that it was closer to where the bird was located. I wracked my brain thinking of ways to get out of taking him to gymnastics to twitch the bird, but being an adult with responsibilities can suck. So I got him lunch and loaded the van with my camera and scope for after gymnastics.
     I spent the next 90 minutes pacing and waiting for him to finish up while watching my inbox like a junkie. As far as I knew the bird was dying. That the animal rehabbers were on their way to collect it. That it had flown off to try and find the ocean. I hurried my son out of class and into the van, barely getting his shoes on and took off for Mesa. We found the park near the Cubs' spring training facilities and quickly spotted an dozen-odd birders looking at the bigger pond there. My son and I hurried up and as easy as pie, saw the bird on the water.

Wedge-Rumped Storm-Petrel - Mesa, Arizona, USA

     It was very close to shore and the only bird on the water. The shape was clearly Storm-Petrel despite me only seeing them in guidebooks, none of which of mine had this bird in them. Someone there identified it as a Wedge-Rumped Storm-Petrel, named for the white patch above it's tail, seen below, and certainly a county record, if not state and ABA.

Wedge-Rumped Storm-Petrel - Mesa, Arizona, USA

     The bird seemed fine to everyone there. We watched it preen and then fly around and maybe even feed on something. It would fly off when the crowd of shore-bound birders would grow too large. But my son and I watched it for a solid 15 minutes before it was time for us to leave.

Wedge-Rumped Storm-Petrel - Mesa, Arizona, USA

Wedge-Rumped Storm-Petrel - Mesa, Arizona, USA

Wedge-Rumped Storm-Petrel - Mesa, Arizona, USA

Wedge-Rumped Storm-Petrel - Mesa, Arizona, USA

     Ah, seeing that bird in a park in front of a bench blows me away! This bird nests on the Galapagos Islands. What an amazing day. My son had fun going on our little adventure and now I want to see even more seabirds, maybe even on the ocean next time.

Cheers!