In southern Arizona, there’s a rest stop in the Patagonia highlands. It’s a small rest stop, only one picnic table. And around this picnic table is a conglomerate of trees, shrubs, brush and open grassy areas.

On a hot day, the place holds repast for a traveler. But once upon a time while sitting at the table eating a PBJ, a birder saw a bird. And this bird turned out to be a local pheromone — a bird so rare it made Rare Bird Alerts throughout North America. Birders from 17 states and a half-dozen other countries flocked to see this bird.

And while there trying to relocate the rarity, they found another one – a bird almost as rare as the first. And then what happened? It happened again.

Over and over, over time. This became known as the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect! A phrase well-coined, a phrase most birders know for what it means.

This brings this tale to Neah Bay where I’m putting it simply by saying a candy store was opened. It opened a couple weeks ago when a bird so rare to North America that rare almost has to be redefined. This is a tale about that bird, yes … but it’s also about the candy store (of birds) that is Neah Bay at this time of the year.

It started with five birders: Ryan S., Brad W., Steve M., Charlie W. and Ryan M. … five of the top field birders in this state or for that matter in North America. They’re the ones who opened the door and invited the masses in.

In my mind’s eye, this is how it may have happened. These five, on a whirlwind outing across the north face of the peninsula, started at Dungeness Landing where they tallied more than 40 species to their eBird checklists.

Among these were x23 canvasback (ducks). Canvasbacks in the county are a code 3 bird. (A quick digression here: Codes refer to rarity. A code 3 bird is one found most every year but few in numbers; a code 4 bird is one that makes your legs wobble and a code 5 bird leaves you speechless and flat-out giddy.)

Finding x23 canvasbacks raised eyebrows with the local birders … but it also keyed in the fact that these five were out-and-about birding and eBird checklists posted online would be monitored closely for what they would find. And find they did, birds of such exceptional rarity that it started the masses moving … moving toward the candy store that is Neah Bay.

Neah Bay is at the tip of the peninsula; it’s touted as the most northerly point in the lower 48 states. And it is. But in the birding world, come late October and early November, Neah Bay is a migrant trap — a place where off-course, misdirected, out-of-sync migrating birds often end up for whatever reason. It’s basic geographic and geologic features funnel birds into the Wa’atch Valley, along Hobuck and Makah beaches, off the tip at Cape Flattery, over Mount Bohokus and onto the bay and surrounding land forms.

It’s an ideal picnic table. It’s a candy store.

Start from the start

Let me start from the beginning as to how I envisioned their day unfolding as they walked down to Cape Flattery to look-see out toward Tatoosh Island and the open ocean.

‘“Kittiwakes!” Not just one, but they ticked x75 of these small northern gulls. From out in the ocean wing-sailing over waves came sooty, pink-footed and short-tailed shearwaters. On the water they tallied almost 2,000 surf scoters and more than a thousand white-winged scoters. Oh, and one black scoter — make a hat trick on scoters!

A bobble on the water at best and as small as a sparrow, Cassin’s auklets were found everywhere they looked.

Another small white gull in winter plumage, Boneys, flicked past them. And the other gulls? How about 5,000 California, another 5,000 Olympic and a scattered few hundreds of Mew, Heermann’s and glaucous-wings.

And the loons? Commons (x50) and red throats, over 200.

But imagine counting 4,700 Pacifics out there. That’s what they did. Another good open pelagic bird seen from the platform were five northern fulmars. And way out there, not sure which it was — a Pomarine or Parasitic — a single jaeger was seen.

There were hundreds of cormorants with black oystercatchers on the rocks below the platform. A couple of brown pelicans flew past. Not to be outdone by seabirds, three peregrine falcons made their list, also.

Back at the top of the trail and down the road a bit, a northern pygmy owl put in an appearance. Then, so did another. And then, overhead, giving its weak flight call, a snow bunting was winging south — a wintering bird here, and not one found very often. Fifty species made their eBird checklist at the Cape.

The valley’s treasures

Heading south, the Wa’atch River Valley summoned them. During the next three hours they tallied 66 species. But it was what they ticked that opened the doors to the candy store. White-fronted geese, cackling geese of the Aleutian, Taverner’s and minima subspecies, and Canada of the Fulva and Moffitti subspecies. Wigeons, mallards, shovelers, pintails, teal and then a vega herring gull was found — a gull usually limited to the Bering Sea. A difficult bird to ID, but a good bird! The second incredible gull found was out on Hobuck Beach at the mouth of the river. An immature slaty-backed gull wandering among all the other gulls. A county code 5!

And then came the sparrows: chipping, a single clay-colored (code 5), Savannah, fox, song, Lincoln’s, golden-crowned, dark-eyed junco with one of them a slate-colored subspecies, and six swamps – a righteous code 4 bird.

But the frosting was the single grasshopper sparrow (code 5) found along Makah Passage in almost the same place as the county’s first was found two years ago by the same Ryan S. — a bird only one other birder saw. An incredible fluff of feathers all tannish and dull.

There was one more sparrow-like bird found, but a name wasn’t given to it except as a possibility. It was just too rare: As Charlie W. wrote, “(It’s) sandy brown above with a short tail, whitish edging to tail, broad wings that tapered, body seemed somewhat bulky.” The possible name? Sky lark. They used to be found in the county a long time ago, but not since the 1990s though.

And there were other birds ticked to their lists that day: western meadowlark, both type 3 and 10 red crossbills, three wren species, several more peregrine falcons, and two more northern pygmy owls.

Candy store treat

Even though they’d seen some incredible birds, rare birds, these weren’t the birds that opened the doors to the candy store. These weren’t the birds that were to bring over 500 birders from 28 states and six other countries to the extreme northwest landform of the lower 48. No, these weren’t that bird. That bird was a falcon, a small falcon, an insect-eating falcon. A falcon whose swiftness put to shame a kestrel’s flight, rivaled a merlin’s and outflew a peregrine’s in sleekness, grace and beauty. A falcon slate-grey over its back, harboring a white cheek patch and a deep slate colored helmet, facial markings and mustache. A white eye-stripe. And under its tail and its leggings rusty in color. A bird found only four times before in North America outside Alaska.

And this sighting became the fifth. Charlie W. saw it first, but the other four were on it like …

In flight it was easily seen to be different. Once it settled onto a perch, they knew they had something good. Something beyond good! Something the birding world would talk about on cell phones, over the Internet, give chase to, ogle over, bemoan when not seen, gleefully danced about when found. A bird so rare, that rare has no synonym worthy of being bandied here.

The falcon? A Eurasian hobby! And this falcon opened the doors to the candy store and the phenomenon known as the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect was about to take place in Neah Bay!

Reach Denny AFMJ Van Horn at dennyvanhorn@gmail.com.