Adding to the many reports from inland and southwestward in Minnesota, tonight there were at least two golden plovers moving between the ball field on Park Point in Duluth and the sands on the lake side, where sanderlings in high numbers and gulls may have been providing them with a sense of security.
The plovers, vocalizing as they have in past autumns, led me from the road past the ball field to check for them along the beach, where at least three of them had staked out a piece of ground for foraging. A slow easy approach on my part was met with signs of stress and curiosity, three watchful birds whose whole set of gestures gave them a much greater air of wildness than the sanderlings nearby or the placid ring-billed gulls. Head bobs, freezing, gazing and runs in my direction as if to see better, then away in the other direction made me decide to hold my ground. When the sanderlings lifted in their exquisite unison and swept off the plovers left as well, and then the one plover who had stood stillest, seeming a bit larger and paler than the other two, and maybe three-legged or lame exhibited black wing pits which clued me in that we had a black-bellied plover with two goldens. None of the plovers by then proved to be three-legged. Here is a quick poem from a previous fall migration season, best shared with fellow birders: I am not meek but mighty, \ though light as grass, but \ surpassing all coasts, I spurt by the thrust of \ my call: "Quee-ee-eep!" \ and its rip of the air, in thrall to the stream of my cry, \ a beam down the hemisphere. 'The Golden Plover, Southbound' -- *Tanya Beyer* Watercolor/mixed media flora, birds and wildscapes are available for viewing or purchase at http://www.etsy.com/shop/EpiphaniesAfield *Tanya Beyer Barcikowski - d.b.a. Epiphanies Afield, Natural History Art from the North American heartland * See and order note cards, frameable prints and original art at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/EpiphaniesAfield Artworks can be viewed at mnartists.org - search by name: Tanya Beyer Want a signature like mine? <http://s.wisestamp.com/links?url=http%3A%2F%2Fr1.wisestamp.com%2Fr%2Flanding%3Fpromo%3D21%26dest%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.wisestamp.com%252Femail-install%253Futm_source%253Dextension%2526utm_medium%253Demail%2526utm_campaign%253Dpromo_21> CLICK HERE.<http://s.wisestamp.com/links?url=http%3A%2F%2Fr1.wisestamp.com%2Fr%2Flanding%3Fpromo%3D21%26dest%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.wisestamp.com%252Femail-install%253Futm_source%253Dextension%2526utm_medium%253Demail%2526utm_campaign%253Dpromo_21> ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
