FOAM LAKE BIRDING
No. 148
The
absentees of last week (the Harris Sparrow, Lincoln's Sparrow, Pine Siskins, Goldfinches,
and Swainson's Thrush) are all here now in our yard. Once the trees start leafing out in earnest
the last of the summer arrivals like the Yellow Warbler, Baltimore Oriole and
House Wren will be here. Then it is
nesting time.
With the
warmer weather we are now sleeping with our window open to breathe the nice fresh
air throughout the night. A fringe
benefit is that we also get to hear birdsong in the late evening and early
morning. Some people find this very
annoying but my wife and I find it soothing.
One of the
bird sounds that we find very relaxing is that of the Wilson's Snipe. I used the word "sound" instead of
"song' for a reason. During the
spring courting season the male flies up from his perch, and after gaining
altitude, goes into a shallow dive. After
gaining speed the air passing through his tail feathers produces a hollow
whistling sound best described as 'wu wu wu . . .". He then pulls out of his dive and repeats the
process. Sometimes, instead of diving, he
will fly in a straight line parallel to the ground and then suddenly turn into
a flat curve with the same resulting sound.
The sound is often referred to as "winnowing". Several males performing in the same area put
on quite a performance - at least for birders.
In Eastern Canada the somewhat similar
Woodcock does something much the same but less dramatic.
The
Wilson's Snipe, a Robin sized wader, is a relatively nondescript brown and
white bird with an extremely long bill.
Although it is a wader it is somewhat of an upland bird often seen sitting
on fence posts, light standards and so on sometimes quite far from water.
In the late
fall small family groups are found along edges of larger sloughs as long as the
shore lines are not frozen over. When
flushed they fly away in zig zag fashion while uttering a loud and harsh
"scape". It is a game bird and
for many years I tried to bag one to see how palatable it was but, no matter
how hard I tried, the snipes always managed to surprise me and fly away before
I could get my bearings.
I took this
week's picture last July just south of Monmartre near the motel that we were
staying at. Judging by the amount of
"white wash" on the rail it must have spent a lot of time perched on
it .
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