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From: dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu (David Mark)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: nemesis birds
Message-ID: <57622@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 3 Feb 91 20:41:35 GMT
References: <50258@olivea.atc.olivetti.com>
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In article <50258@olivea.atc.olivetti.com> mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser) writes:
>
>	I have heard people talk about something they call "their
>nemesis bird"; that is, a species that they have tried to see time
>after time that keeps eluding them. I don't know if I truly have a 
>nemesis bird, but there is one species that is probably the front-
>runner; Northern Saw Whet Owl. I have tried for this bird on a number 
>of occasions and, although it has been calling in the trees around me,
>I have failed to get a light on it.
>

In the 1970s, my nemesis bird was Northern Pygmy Owl.  I was living
in the Vancouver (B.C.) area at the time, and I must have made dozens
and dozens of cross-town rushes to places of sightings.  In 1980
I was doing a Canada "Big Year", and must have tried more than a dozen times, 
within 24 hours of sightings.  Finally, on about December 27, I saw one
near Penticton British Columbia.  Talk about a thrill!!  I had been so
obsessed with Pyg-Owl, for so long, that I never have zeroed in on a
nemesis bird since, although I have invested so much time in trying
for Wallcreeper in Europe, without success, that it is begining to feel
like a the new candidate!

David Mark
dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu