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April 2008

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Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:11:50 -0500
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Hi All:
Have appreciated reading everyone's observations.  My husband and I enjoyed a few unusual surprises last evening as we rambled about our property in Thompson, OH...in a brushy area we heard strange twittering overhead coming from a smallish bird who then graciously landed near us so that we could get a good look.  It was an ovenbird, and we'd just been treated to the ovenbird's flight song!  After the light diminished and we rambled more, we heard woodcock peenting nearby.  Everytime he flew (quite high) we crept closer to his domain.  We watched a few flights and were heading back up the path when I froze, seeing woodcock plummeting downwards.  Well, he landed not eight feet from me (!) and commenced with his strutting and peenting as I stood stock-still.  Being so close it was interesting to observe that each peent was immediately preceded by a sort of compressed-air sound...um, er, kinda whoopie-cushion-ish (if I may be so indelicate.)  It was cool!  I've had them land fai
 rly close by to forage for worms or bathe in the ditch, but hadn't had such a great, close-up view of the ground portion of his display.  When he took off, he shot straight over my shoulder. Wow!  We both had bright coats on (red and blue) but I guess as far as he was concerned we were just part of the landscape...
Otherwise, just the usual customers around...barred and GH owls, crows, jays,  WB nuthatches, chickadees, turkeys, titmice, phoebe, oodles of white-throated sparrows and goldfinches, our resident sapsuckers, downy, hairy, pileated, redbelly, flicker; field, song, and chipping sparrows, RW blackbirds and the occasional purple finches and grackles.  Woodthrushes and RB grosbeaks just showed up this weekend and have supplied us with song, whereas house wren arrived and supplied us with scoldings.  Our first yard warbler was a blue-winged yesterday afternoon, and we were happy to see him.  Eagerly anticipating the next round of migrants!

Britt and Dan Townsend


C. Britt Townsend
Thompson, Ohio

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