[nnasnet] no more owls
- From: Tom Saunders <birdnerd53@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: nnasnet@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2012 07:15:31 -0400
We hadn't been able to get to Dameron Marsh all week but were hoping the
resident great horned owls would still be present when we checked them out
last night. Alas, no owls. The last time we were there the hatchling was
exercising its wings and hopping from nest to limb and back, so we're
taking the optimistic view that this nesting attempt produced one
fledgling. We monitored the nest from mid-January, when we noticed evidence
of nesting activity, through April 8, and the owls followed the schedule in
the reference books almost to the day. It was fun.
With no owls to watch (though there was plenty of hooting) we turned our
attention to the rest of DM and weren't disappointed. Lots of shore birds -
both greater and lesser yellowlegs, short-billed dowitchers, willets, least
sandpipers and black-bellied plovers - were in the middle distance
lagoons. A bonaparte's gull circled over the shorebirds, looking to steal a
morsel of food, no doubt. A single mute swan, several great blue herons and
a small squadron of horned grebes just off shore.
Male yellow-rump warblers have gotten brightly colored in the last few
weeks and are singing their tuneless song almost everywhere I go.
White-throated sparrows are still abundant but the juncos appear to have
left.
Tom Saunders
Balls Neck
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