Hi, I went to the Felton Prairie late Tuesday afternoon hoping to see a Baird's Sparrow and saw a Louisiana Warterthrush instead. The bird was in the wet woods along the gravel road branching left from the top of Clay County 108. This is just north and slightly west of the north gate leaving the longspur road and the gravel pit just beyond it. What made me give the bird a close look was that it was much lighter below than the typical Northern Waterthrush, and its supercilium was much bolder. Eventually, the bird came within about thirty feet of me, giving me excellent looks at its bright pink legs and the buff flank wash just above the legs. The supercilium remained wide behind the eye, the throat was clear of any streaking except the light malar marks, and where a Nothern waterthrush would be slightly yellowish below, this bird was white. Its bill was comparatively long and stocky, and it bobbed in a more deliberate way than I'm used to with northern. Also, its body appeared plumper, with the rump and tail seemingly raised a bit during its bobbing. The chip note it gave did seem less emphatic than the northern's, as the field guides suggest, but I don't have a good enough ear or enough knowledge of waterthrush vocalizations to feel especially confident about that. A northern waterthrush appeared for a moment between sightings of the Louisiana, which helped in making comparisons, even though I didn't see the two birds side by side. The difference between the bold black streaks of the northern and the much sparser and lighter (and rather brownish) streaks of the Louisiana was especially striking. The white versus yellowish breast color was very clear, too, and the pinkish color of the northern's legs was much duller. As I was watching the bird, Fargo birder Rick Gjervold drove up and watched the bird with me.
Bob O'Connor Moorhead
