2013 and beyond

It's pretty simple: the most birds seen or heard from one's yard during 2013 will be the "winner". Want in? O.k....then do it despite that.

2013 promises to be a lot less mean but still a carbon-free birding competition, even if slightly less exciting than a MEGA x EPIC hybrid.

Friday, May 6, 2011

near MEGA....tic,tic.....tic,tic,tic

While leaving the yard briefly to hunt down a signing OCWA I heard a Yellow Rail calling in a sedge edge along the Portage Marsh probably 100 meters from my "yard official". It give 3 series of calls lasting about 8 seconds each. No luck hearing it from the lair....but still what a fun bird to have outside the backdoor. I'm hoping with the wet spring we have had that this is a potential breeding site. Just beyond the YERA I heard the grunting of a VIRA -- a bird that I heard on the 4th along with the whinny of a distant Sora, though I'm holding out for a better "look" at the Sora before adding it to the menagerie.
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7 comments:

  1. BootsMay 6, 2011 at 10:01 AM

    probably someone out in the marsh typing ...

    still waiting for the Carex, Juncus and Eleocharis I planted in my vernal wetland (aka occasional puddle) to deliver

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  2. Caleb PutnamMay 6, 2011 at 1:18 PM

    This has Leopard Frog written all over it.

    Seriously though- this has to be one of the top contenders for rarity of the year! Friggin YERA in the yard?!?!? Maybe even RIBR cannot outdo that.

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  3. BootsMay 6, 2011 at 1:34 PM

    Joe, you and yellow rail go way back, no? If it was in anyone's yard ...

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  4. Caleb PutnamMay 6, 2011 at 5:11 PM

    Joe- I am assuming you eventually got it for the yard, right?

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  5. Swamp KatMay 6, 2011 at 10:56 PM

    Yellow Rail and I go way back - amazing enough I saw my first Yellow Rail on my first day birding 9/13/80 - the woman who enticed my to go into the field found it after a rain storm in an alder along the dike at the Eric Gun Club. She was giddy and took my head and stuck it into the alder and said "Take a good look at that it's going to be a long time before you see another". It took a second or two before I saw the rail sitting on a branch about two feet from my face.

    This is my first for Delta County -- I never came up with one in the Keweenaw -- a let down.

    No Caleb - didn't get it for the yard proper, but I'm contemplating seriously about Fitzing it....

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  6. Rick BrighamMay 8, 2011 at 12:08 AM

    Sounds like that lady got you into birding for good, Joe. Who is she?

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  7. Swamp KatMay 15, 2011 at 7:58 AM

    Ellie Cox. She definitely got me into for good. Depending on how you define good.

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