Emberiza pusilla

How's this for an unlucky Friday the 13th?? This grainy, distant shot captures the recently arrived Little Bunting in the farmlands of McKinleyville. This bitty bird in fact inhabits Eurasia; this is the fifth record of the species in the lower 48. Ever. It was found by a local birder yesterday and has since been blowing up the scene like I have never seen! I went out this afternoon after class and found myself with more than a dozen other people, staring into the setting sun for a far-off glimpse of this ultra-rare emberizid. Several of the gawkers had driven up from the Bay Area today, and now I've heard people are driving or flying in from southern California, Oregon, even the east coast. Me? I mustered the energy and courage to make the arduous ten minute drive from my house! Oh, the lengths to which we will go to see an ABA rarity.