Hundreds of birders from around the US have been travelling to the Katama Airport on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts to see this first-summer male Red-footed Falcon (Falco vespertinus) found by Vernon Laux. Assuming the bird is accepted as being of wild origin -- and there is nothing at this point to suggest that it is not -- this is the first North American record for this species, which breeds in eastern Europe and central Asia, and winters in Africa. Extensive media coverage of the bird and the visiting birders includes a front-page story in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/12/science/12bird.html
The bird was perched too far away and the heat waves were too severe for getting good digiscoped shots while we were there, but then I caught a lucky break mid-morning when it made a low pass in front of the assembled crowd along a road on the side of the airfield. The DSLR was in sleep mode and I was frantically trying to awaken it as the bird approached, and I barely managed a couple of shots as it passed in front of me. A few more shots are at:
http://www.pbase.com/gtepke/redfooted_falcon_0408
