Falls Creek SNA was the destination of the day for the needed hour of exercise, with the Louisiana Waterthrush as an incentive. It did not disappoint. When a feathered phantom zipped past heading upstream, we followed and found it at the creek bed. It quickly rose to perch in a sapling above the water. We stayed in place, and it soon grew comfortable enough to alight on a fallen log, giving us excellent views. Later in the hike, it returned downstream to bathe, groom and sing in plain sight.
Meanwhile, we were surrounded with song. Ovenbirds were most vocal, with Woodthrush, Veery, and Winter Wren providing background. We had a brief serenade from a Rose-breasted Grosbeak courting a female. The vireos were represented by the Red-eyed and the Yellow-throated. Of the several flycatcher species, the most persistent voices were the Acadians', with their "PI-zza" request. One of them gave us great looks also, perching for many minutes in the open and grooming after a bath. Pine Warblers too, were singing; unfortunately they stayed high in the conifers, giving only one backlit, silhouette flyover. On the way home, we checked out an area new to us, the Schuneman Nature Preserve of the Jacques chapter of the Izaak Walton League. It has many acres of grassy wetlands, dotted with tiny ponds and a lake. There are plans to restore the higher grounds to oak savannah, but for now there are paths mowed through the grasses, and some boardwalk planks over the dampest areas. We found some of the logical species---Tree Swallows, Yellow Warblers, C. Yellowthroats, Red-winged Blackbirds, Song Sparrows, Warbling Vireos, for instance---but also Yellow-throated Vireo and numerous Sedge Wrens. Perhaps the biggest surprise were the two hen Turkeys that we flushed, one of them with two tiny poults in tow (and likely more in the grass). To finish the fun, we found a half dozen Black Terns hunting at a large, roadside pasture-pond on the west side of Manning Boulevard, north of the intersection with CR 7, where we have seen them in the past. I'm left wondering if the generous ring of grasses around the pond might be hiding Tern nests, and hope to look for the birds there again soon. Linda Whyte ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
