Hobbyist photographer snaps photo of extremely rare bird in 1st U.S. sighting

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/03/ [login to see] /rare-bird-oregon-blue-rock-thrush
Call it beginner's luck.

On a trip to the Oregon coast in late April, amateur photographer Michael Sanchez took his new camera out to Hug Point State Park to snap pictures of waterfalls.

Sanchez, a 41-year-old middle-school band director from Vancouver, Wash., recently picked up photography and, by his account, is by no means a bird-watcher. But his trip turned into an impromptu photo shoot that made him the envy of birders.