This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------080602020104050409060807 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Two big thumbs up and a hearty thank you for Larry turning me onto Snail Lake Park. I rode my bike over there from Spring Lake Park and birded the entire trail around the lake. It was 12-4 so the birds were tough to see on the east side but I honed in on mobbing crows who were screaming out "OWL" (use your imagination instead of "Caw"). I walked up just in time to see a huge bird taking off and being pursued by the crows so I figured it had to be an owl if I spooked it by sound amidst the crow's yammering. So I went into stealth mode and was gifted with seeing the biggest Great Horned Owl I have ever imagined! Wow! In the park area the birding was excellent. I saw my first definitive Northern Waterthrush (I mean I could ID it instead of seeing it and not knowing what it was). I feasted on Yellow Warbler, Oven Birds, Hermit Thrush, Swainson Thrushs, Common Yellow Throat, Pine Warbler, Catbird, Swamp Sparrow, and many more regulars - all in a beautiful park setting with picnic tables and bathrooms. The best birding was from the grassy areas looking at the trees and habitats from a nice distance. These 10x Pentax were worth every penny. As I completed my circumnavigation of the lake and bordered HW 96 on the north side of the lake, the birding continued to be great with B. Orioles and Yellow Warblers and others plus an exciting show put on by a Great White Egret as it pummeled a large bullhead into defenseless submission, rinsed it gingerly and mindfully scarfed it down. Delightful Coup de Gras. Thomas Maiello Spring Lake Park --------------080602020104050409060807 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> Two big thumbs up and a hearty thank you for Larry turning me onto Snail Lake Park. I rode my bike over there from Spring Lake Park and birded the entire trail around the lake. It was 12-4 so the birds were tough to see on the east side but I honed in on mobbing crows who were screaming out "OWL" (use your imagination instead of "Caw"). I walked up just in time to see a huge bird taking off and being pursued by the crows so I figured it had to be an owl if I spooked it by sound amidst the crow's yammering. So I went into stealth mode and was gifted with seeing the biggest <b>Great Horned Owl</b> I have ever imagined! Wow!<br> <br> In the park area the birding was excellent. I saw my first definitive <b>Northern Waterthrush</b> (I mean I could ID it instead of seeing it and not knowing what it was). I feasted on <b>Yellow Warbler, Oven Birds, Hermit Thrush, Swainson Thrushs, Common Yellow Throat, Pine Warbler, Catbird, Swamp Sparrow</b>, and many more regulars - all in a beautiful park setting with picnic tables and bathrooms. The best birding was from the grassy areas looking at the trees and habitats from a nice distance. These 10x Pentax were worth every penny.<br> <br> As I completed my circumnavigation of the lake and bordered HW 96 on the north side of the lake, the birding continued to be great with <b>B. Orioles</b> and <b>Yellow Warblers</b> and others plus an exciting show put on by a <b>Great White Egret</b> as it pummeled a large bullhead into defenseless submission, rinsed it gingerly and mindfully scarfed it down. Delightful Coup de Gras.<br> <br> Thomas Maiello<br> Spring Lake Park<br> </body> </html> --------------080602020104050409060807--
