A late afternoon leg-stretch at this always-promising locale proved satisfying, despite the lack of visible (to me, anyway) shorebirds. As usual, there was an abundance of yellow-rumped warblers, whose bright color and sweet sound are harbingers of further beauty. However, some newer arrivals provided the extra interest: First-Of-Year Nashville warbler, where the Bass Ponds creek empties into the bottom of the ravine, and the talkative two house wrens on the eastern-most side of the Ponds. A very co-operative white-throated sparrow along the lower end of the creek, just before the lower footbridge, allowed long looks in full sunlight at its striking colors. Over in the new drainage pond just east of the Cedar/77 bridge, there was a pair of resting ruddy ducks, and a kinglet came close and showed its ruby crown on the walk back through the shrubs and trees by the pond with the fishing dock. Also somewhat bold was the palm warbler feeding at the rim of the first pond on the right, below the driveway; it flitted from one grassy stalk to another in plain view.
At Old Cedar a catbird, another FOY, was chattering away off the path east of the parking lot, though not from anywhere visible. From the boardwalk platform you could easily see the nesting eagle to the southwest, and there were a couple of very busy and vocal Blue-gray gnatcatchers right above the Bluff Trail at its intersection with the boardwalk path. Add to that the fun of watching a pair of chickadees dredging out a cavity at the open top of a snag--- perhaps rooting for food, as they flew in and out, carrying beaksful of woody pulp to dump. Altogether, it was a whole lot more than healthy exercise....."thank heaven for little (birds)---without them what would little (girls) do."* Linda Whyte *if you don't get the reference, you're too young to know the film "Gigi" ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
