[mou] marbled godwits

Steve and Sherry Watson watsup@boreal.org
Wed, 12 May 2004 19:06:40 -0700


This morning around half past seven I stepped out onto the porch ready
to take a walk around our forty acres when I heard an interesting sound
that seemed shorebird like.  I peered up to lay eyes on about a dozen
marbled godwits flying over quite high along with one lesser yellowlegs.
It was quite a surprise and a good one; the birds came as my 208th Cook
County bird and 124th yard bird.  My hike yielded many birds, songbirds
in particular.  Thousands of sparrows are just covering our land which
is pretty open in the back with several stands of forest.  I stood still
for a moment and I could hardly hear myself think the sound of birds
rummaging on the ground was so loud.  It's mostly white-throated and
chipping sparrows but we also have dozens of white-crowned, a Harris's,
a Lincoln's, a few swamp, many savannahs, and tons of song sparrows all
inhabiting the yard and the back of our land.  There are also many
warblers around including many Nashville, black-throated green,
blackburnian, Parula, northern waterthrush, ovenbird, black & white, and
yellow-rumped warbler.  I also heard my first blue-headed vireo at home.
This afternoon a yellow-headed blackbird was in the yard and last night
a woodcock stopped along the brook meandering through our yard.  We have
several other fun common birds around including a pair of tree and
rough-winged swallows in an old abandon gravel pit in the back as well
as a pair of kingfishers.  So far its been an exciting spring!  Good
birding

Josh Watson 
Grand Marais         

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