Good question, Teresa!

When it comes to chasing rarities, my wife and rate them on a kind of
sliding scale. We're much more likely to chase a bird that is only a
vagrant to the all-important "ABA area" (North America north of Mexico),
such as a Dusky Thrush or Xantus' Hummingbird. We're also likely to chase
an ABA-area bird from a remote, limited range that we may never get a
chance to visit, like a Bristle-thighed Curlew or a McKay's Bunting. Birds
that are easily found elsewhere in the U.S. or Canada, we're much less
likely to chase, unless they're nearby. The Black-throated Blue Warbler is
a good example.

That said, sometimes the chase is just for the pure fun of it. It's
exciting to drop everything at a moment's notice and rush off to try to see
some rarity fresh off the hotline. As often as not, the bird has flown,
but that high risk of "failure" is what adds spice to the sport of birding.
It's a different kind of thrill from that of patrolling the same familiar
close-to-home grounds.

Scott Downes had a good point about chases being a good excuse to get out
and bird new areas. We've seen lots of interesting places and habitats
that we probably would not have visited if there wasn't some bird drawing
us there. Sometimes birding is so good in these off-the-beaten-path spots
that the original object of the chase is forgotten.

Eric Kraig
Olympia, WA
kraig at wln.com