Today Arlene Richmond and I set out for Julie Metz to find a
life Harris' sparrow for her and a life clay-colored for me. At first,
there were practically no birds to be found; then, just as we were almost
back to the parking lot, we came upon an area where there was some
unfrozen water, and there were the birds! Again, nothing unusual seen
until Arlene said, "What's that bird?" After some miscommunication as to
exactly which tree the critter was in, I finally saw it for just a couple
of seconds before it jumped down into the grass never to reappear. What
I saw was a small bird with sharply-defined fine brown/black stripes on
white, a "flattened" face with a tiny beak, red on the head and
orangey-yellow in the shoulder region. Neither of us noticed any black
on the chin, but the bird was facing sideways and we didn't have a very
long look. The bird was just about a hundred yards north of the parking
lot to the left of the trail that leads directly back from the lot.
After this, we decided to check out Leesylvania SP. By the jetty
next to the Marina was some open water in which were crowded some 20-30
Canadas, 11 female common merganzers, 3-4 hooded mergs, and a couple of
scaup sp. A few black ducks were flying back and forth and every now and
then you could hear the popping of hunters' guns.
The most interesting thing for me, though, was the ice on the
water. It was ALIVE: hissing, whistling, and as the tide came in,
cracking so loudly that I thought someone had a weedwhacker running
further on down the beach. What was so fascinating was that as the tide
pushed the ice ashore, it broke up and piled up onto itself right at our
feet. Who needs to go to arctic climes when you've got such a show right
here?
Edna Aaron
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