Of ducks and deer and goatsuckers
August 22nd, 2010
Had a great time today hiking Stony Swamp with Michael. We went first to Sarsaparilla Trail, then Jack Pine. It was a gray, drizzly day, with the potential for heavier rain--I went out in it because I was stir crazy from having been sick, and Mike just sort of got pulled along by my enthusiasm, I guess. It turned out surprisingly pleasant. Deep woods are a good place to spend gray days.
Sarsaparilla was a disappointment. I'd never been there before. I think we must have missed something. As best we could tell there was no more than five minutes of hiking to be done.
Jack Pine was, as usual, a pleasure. Three highlights: one was a doe with a quite young spotted fawn in the woods. Two was a probable female/eclipse Green-Winged Teal flushing from an open area of the marsh. The speculum looked more blue-green than the pure green I expect, but I think it can appear like that in certain light. The duck looked too small to be a mallard or black--a mallard or black that size shouldn't be old enough to fly yet--plus, it flushed as soon as it saw us and flew far away, while the other ducks, all blacks and mallards, some with young, were completely unfazed, not even bothering to swim farther away.
Highlight number three was the big one. At least three, maybe four Common Nighthawks! They were circling across the water from us. Nighthawks are crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk) birds who hunt insects on the wing. They're not actually hawks, but nightjars, which is known more colorfully as the goatsucker family (apparently our ancestors considered them an ill omen). They're identifiable in flight even at a great distance thanks to the white bars across their wing tips. I can count on one hand the number of sightings of this species I've tallied--and this was the closest I'd ever seen them.
They looked very like falcons to me. I wondered if any of the local songbirds had the same impression!
August 22nd, 2010
Had a great time today hiking Stony Swamp with Michael. We went first to Sarsaparilla Trail, then Jack Pine. It was a gray, drizzly day, with the potential for heavier rain--I went out in it because I was stir crazy from having been sick, and Mike just sort of got pulled along by my enthusiasm, I guess. It turned out surprisingly pleasant. Deep woods are a good place to spend gray days.
Sarsaparilla was a disappointment. I'd never been there before. I think we must have missed something. As best we could tell there was no more than five minutes of hiking to be done.
Jack Pine was, as usual, a pleasure. Three highlights: one was a doe with a quite young spotted fawn in the woods. Two was a probable female/eclipse Green-Winged Teal flushing from an open area of the marsh. The speculum looked more blue-green than the pure green I expect, but I think it can appear like that in certain light. The duck looked too small to be a mallard or black--a mallard or black that size shouldn't be old enough to fly yet--plus, it flushed as soon as it saw us and flew far away, while the other ducks, all blacks and mallards, some with young, were completely unfazed, not even bothering to swim farther away.
Highlight number three was the big one. At least three, maybe four Common Nighthawks! They were circling across the water from us. Nighthawks are crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk) birds who hunt insects on the wing. They're not actually hawks, but nightjars, which is known more colorfully as the goatsucker family (apparently our ancestors considered them an ill omen). They're identifiable in flight even at a great distance thanks to the white bars across their wing tips. I can count on one hand the number of sightings of this species I've tallied--and this was the closest I'd ever seen them.
They looked very like falcons to me. I wondered if any of the local songbirds had the same impression!
| ← | → |