Yesterday I got out of track practice early, so I headed to the Browerville Sewage Ponds. A storm had gone through very early that morning. I got there and the warblers made me stop half way up the road to the ponds. The warblers were thick, covering the gravel road in front of me. There was a group of 20 Yellow Warblers in with the Yellow-rumps on the road. Then I noticed the Kingbirds, they lined the wires, covered the rocks and sat on the side of the road, and all over the building, it was just constant movement as thousands of swallows filled the air with the warblers, then the Tanagers showed up, lining the pine tree branches. I finally made my way up to the ponds where I was totally surprised. If anyone knows anything about these ponds, they aren't too great for shorebirds, maybe a spotted or 2 and a few Yellowlegs, you can also basically see only one pond. But when I got to the edge and looked down I witnessed a mass of black. The shorebirds were thick! They lined the near shore, 5 deep from the shore all the way down the shore. I counted close to 700 indidviduals, all on this one side of the pond. There were 13 species, involving 11 Long-billed Dowitchers 73 Wilson's Phalaropes 3 White-rumped Sandpipers 55 Pectoral Sandpipers 12 Dunlins and numerous others.
Anyway it was a lot of fun Ben Fritchman _________________________________________________________________ Check out the coupons and bargains on MSN Offers! http://youroffers.msn.com