Patience (or lack thereof)

I went out birding last Sunday (11/6) morning. I was hoping to see the two rare birds that had been seen in Point Loma recently. A Prothonotary Warbler was found in a residential neighborhood of Point Loma and a Brown Thrasher has been seen at Cabrillo National Monument. It’s interesting to note that these two locations are only about a mile apart! This turned out to be a blessing and a curse… I spent from 8-9:30am looking for the warbler. The warbler was seen at 8:15, but I was off check other possible locations and missed it. Then I headed over to look for the thrasher until about 12pm. Around 11am I heard from another birder that the warbler had just been seen again. I finally got bored of waiting for the thrasher to show up and headed back to the warbler spot. It hadn’t shown up by the time I left around 1pm. As far as I know the thrasher wasn’t seen at all that day. I should have just tried for one of the birds! In switching back and forth between them I missed my chance at the Prothonotary Warbler. Even so the day wasn’t a total loss…
Before heading to Point Loma I made a quick circuit around Festiva Island in Mission Bay. There were a lot of various birds, but I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to identify them (yeah, bad birding, I know). I found the bird I was after near the end of the loop: Horned Lark. Then it was off to Point Loma, but of course I got lost along the way. While getting “unlost”, I saw an accipiter sitting on an old TV antenna – small, heavily streaked breast, squared-off tail – Juvenile Sharp-Shinned Hawk! Gotta get lost more often! At CNM there were tons of Hermit Thrushes, very bold California Towhees (they come within a couple feet), A Fox Sparrow, and a Merlin. So, I missed the two “good” birds, but I did get four new ones.