Haha!  No.  This is not the name of a new disease.  Well.  If you haven’t seen this bird yet you might start feeling sick.  How long will it stay?  No one knows.  Ohhhh the agony of having to wait for an opportunity to chase a rare bird!  I heard about this bird on Friday.  I watched reports on the Internet all day Saturday and through Sunday morning.  By the time some of us finished up our obligations at Flora-Quest in Scioto County it was already mid-afternoon.  Finally, all 5 of us (Greg & Leslie Cornett, Cheryl Harner, Jason Larson, and myself piled into the Cornett’s Honda Pilot and set the GPS for Fernald Preserve northwest of Cincinnati–nearly 2.5 hours away.  Traveling this distance to see a bird from Eurasia always seems to go in slow motion.

Two hours into our trip we got a call from another birder, Janet Creamer, saying that she was currently watching the bird from the platform at the first pond on the right side of the entrance road into the preserve.  And then…

Garganey - Fernald Preserve, Harrison, OH photo: Greg Miller

What a striking bird, don’t you think?  It’s about the same size as the Blue-winged Teals with which it associates.

Garganey & Blue-winged Teal - Fernald Preserve, Harrison, OH photo: Greg Miller

Ahhh.  Sweet success!