June 3 2012. A big rotating system of stormy wet weather has moved slowly through, blessing us with a lot of much needed rain. Now three days later, the skies remain ragged and uncertain, and every now and then we get a squall of hard driven rain. I don’t think anyone’s complaining very much though.
In this uncertain weather I went out on a group hike to see what we could find in a nearby landscape of hills, woods and swamps. As it turned out the rain held off, except for a couple of short lived bursts, but the wind made things noisy so birding by ear was tough.
Over the first half of the morning we enjoyed hearing and seeing several Veerys, Cedar Waxwings and Eastern Kingbirds. We briefly heard the abrupt “Free-be-O” of an Alder Flycatcher and picked up the faint song of a Black and White Warbler. On a walk through dense wet woodland we had an opportunity to study a Northern Waterthrush singing its splattery “Twit twit twit- sweet sweet sweet -tew tew tew.” song. A couple of singing Canada Warblers eventually showed themselves but my attempts at photographs were frustratingly out of focus.
Later as we drove to our final destination, we came upon a family of American Woodcocks venturing to cross the road in front of us. We stopped the car of course but they didn’t stay around for very long. It was a one of the most curious bird sightings I’ve had this year (and Birds of the Day without question). Woodcocks are shy, retiring, cryptically coloured birds of woodlands and woodland margins. You rarely see them except perhaps in early spring (I blogged about their courtship displays in mid April) and thereafter sightings usually come about if you startle them by stepping on them. But here was this family, 2 adults and 3 youngsters, stepping out onto the roadway. They are wonderful birds with their round bodies, outlandishly long bills and waddling bouncing gait as if suspended on a rubber string. I managed to get a couple of not very special photographs through the car windshield. I’ll post better ones if someone else has them.
That interlude left us wondering what our next planned stop could possibly deliver that could be better than the woodcocks, but we were soon well rewarded by studying at length a singing Grasshopper Sparrow. It stayed obligingly close giving us the chance to get to know it much better, a great opportunity as they are difficult birds to find with any regularity. As the sky darkened we rounded out the day by re-finding the Prairie Warbler I’d visited last week and catching a glimpse of a Blue-winged Warbler.
