This is Corey’s fault. His lovely post on Jamaica Bay (particularly the Barn Owl pictures) not only reminded me that I needed to get outdoors again, it got the wheels turning in the Inimitable Todd’s head. So, despite the pounding sun and predicted heat, I was gently pried loose from my computer just prior e-mailing my first targeted agent and aimed in the direction of the water.
The Inimitable Todd had never been to the east side of the refuge before. As I led him down the trails to Big John’s Pond, he was impressed by the natural beauty of the scene – and also by the enormous, threatening signs warning of ticks along the trail.
“Oh, don’t worry,” I told him. “I’ve never even seen a tick.”
(You know where this is going, right?)
But even concentrating strictly on vertebrates, it was an interesting day. We saw Gray Tree Frogs hiding in a crevice of the blind:
We saw a family of Wood Ducks, a Black-crowned Night Heron, several young Scarlet Tanagers. I left the IT staking out the owl box and headed to the West Pond, where I saw Skimmers and Oystercatchers, Short-billed Dowitchers (badly named) and Stilt Sandpipers (rather more accurate), Glossy Ibis and Least Tern, Brown Thrasher and Gray Catbird, Little Blue Herons and Great Egrets, even a raccoon dashing across the trail (no doubt in pursuit of terrapin eggs). But as I walked, my thoughts drifted ever back to the IT and his tick-beset quest to catch a glimpse of the Owl. Was he succeeding? Was he failing? Had his position been overwhelmed and his precious bodily fluids sucked dry by marauding parasites?
Meanwhile, the IT, patient and serene, was being entertained by this handsome creature:
I returned in time to watch a fledgling Green Heron, still bedecked with traces of fuzz, catch one of the numerous dragonflies that soared over Big John’s Pond. But the owl box still looked like this:
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July 22, 2009 at 3:49 am
That’s the same way the owl box has looked each time I’ve been at Big John’s Pond. If I’m not mistaken, that’s the same night heron perch appearing in this video.
July 22, 2009 at 8:05 am
Maybe you should consider visiting the hide from Dusk till Dawn? You’ve handled blood-suckers by day, you’ll handle them at night as well, right?
July 22, 2009 at 8:05 am
Those Tree Frogs alone would have made my day.
July 22, 2009 at 10:19 am
Too bad there weren’t Three Tree Frogs.
Ha.
Well, maybe only funny to non-native speakers.
It is hot and humit today at the office, I’d better stop dropping loads of comments on other people’s blogs and get some water (and work done as well, I presume)…
July 22, 2009 at 11:48 am
I wonder if they have fully fledged and vacated the premises?
Despite the owl miss that is one nice frog pic…
August 13, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I heard from John (Dendroica) that you may be joining us for the Jamaica Bay Blogging outing. Sweet. I went ahead and added you to the seriously growing list. This is going to be awesome!