I checked the Tihonet Road cranberry bogs at 4:40 PM this afternoon, not expecting much. I have checked a number of times without success the past week or so.
As soon as I put my binocs up, I saw two birds off to the right. Then a third popped it's head up from one of the ditches. Patience was rewarded with a fourth, and fifth bird. Suddenly I saw what I thought was a sixth bird, but as I said in my original post, these birds are constantly trading places going in and out of the ditches and usually only one is in view at any given time. At one point they all were out of view for ten to fifteen minutes!!! So the impatient observer may stop by, scan, see nothing and leave.
After about forty five minutes I lost track of them but then found them off to the left about 75 yards!! How they moved that far undetected I can't figure unless there is a large culvert under the main dike. Anyway, now looking into the sun, I was finally about to confirm six birds! All in one scope view!
The sun went down behind the trees at 5:40 and about ten minutes later they took off, heading to roost. The lead bird had one leg dangling down. The new bird appeared not to be a full adult. I wasn't seeing as much red on the head nor white on the check, but that may have been a factor of looking into the sun. It still appeared gray and not like a juvenal as I have seen there in the past.
Mike
Mike Maurer
Marion, MA
"The time to save a species is while it is still common" Rosalie Edge, Founder of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary
Marion, MA
"The time to save a species is while it is still common" Rosalie Edge, Founder of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary
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