FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Evening show at Bible Refuge

[Dnldhlt@xxxxxxx]

Sat., 13 MAR 2004
Joachim Bible Refuge Unit of Lick Creek Bottoms WMA
Greene Co., TN
D. Holt

I walked down toward the TWRA barn at the Bible Refuge at sundown in hopes of 
seeing a Barn Owl, having seen feathers and pellets there before.  I was 
easing down the gravel road, peeking out from between red cedars across the 
fields, thinking one might be out early hunting from the tops of fenceposts.  
And 
there on a fencepost was, not an owl, but a juvenile Northern Harrier, less 
than 
fifty yards away.  I watched it search the ground around it with its eyes, 
presumably for prey.  It occasionally stretched and preened.  Finally it flew 
across the field and met another juvenile Harrier in midair, following it 
across 
the field, scaring off a flock of five Wilsons Snipe before settling on the 
ground.
     I went on to the barn and saw a nest box designed for barn owls mounted 
in the barn, but neither saw nor heard any sign of one.  I did, however, hear 
two Great Horned Owls in the distance.  Walking back, I also heard a sound I 
vaguely recognized but could not place, a spooky sort of sound.  I forgot about 
it for a while when an American Woodcock began beeping about ten yards away 
from me.  Though very close, I couldn't see him because the road was a few feet 
below his spot and I was eye level with him in the grass which blocked my 
view until he flew.  I watched him dance several times.  Once it began its 
ascent 
by flying a few yards over my shoulder.  I could see its short little wings 
whirring away, and the whistle they made I could only hear while it was close, 
maybe within about twenty yards.
     After watching him, and listening to others in the other fields, I again 
heard the spooky sound I had heard earlier, and suddenly remembered that it 
was the winnowing sound made by the wings of a displaying Wilsons Snipe.  I had 
only heard it on tape before.  One thing the tape didn't prepare me for was 
that I can't really tell for sure what direction the sound comes from whenever 
I hear it, so I didn't know where to look to see the displaying Snipe.  It was 
too dark by then, anyway.  Maybe next time...

Don Holt
Johnson City, TN
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