BIRDLAND

Summer Vacation

Colorado birders were gaga over the mysterious arrival of an Anhinga at a pond in Boulder County last month. Only three of these birds have previously been spotted in Colorado. The Anhinga in the image above was actually photographed by Mark Silverstein in Costa Rica, which is a locale where you’d normally spot this long-necked, long-tailed swimmer. There is a term for when birds show up in places where they’re not expected: It’s called “avian vagrancy.” Sometimes they’re blown off course, or get disoriented during migration. In the case of the Boulder visitor, maybe the guy just felt like a Colorado adventure.