Subject: Hot Summer Evening
Date: Jun 29 06:11:48 1995
From: grant hendrickson - ghendric at potlatch.esd112.wednet.edu


Last night I enjoyed an evening on Lake Merrill (DeLorme 33) which
reminded me again why I love living in this part of the country. It was
one of those occasions when birding was a serendipitous event
accompanying the act of trying to get trout to respond to an imitation
hexigenia. That hatch is month-long summer phenomenon. The only sizeable
trout caught were by two adult OSPREY. They made eight dives and were
successful each time. Three clutches of COMMON MERGANSERS, one with eight
young, were fun to watch. Four COMMON NIGHTHAWKS periodically broke the
stillness with their dives. A small flock of CEDAR WAXWINGS joined the
rest of us waiting the hatch of mayflies (which never occurred). A
SPOTTED SANDPIPER was in its usual location on the lake shore. TREE
SWALLOWS were in abundance.

The most stunning part of the evening was the symphony of bird calls from
the forests around the lake. I was helpless to identify the dozen or so
different species I heard. Today I purchase the appropriate materials to
start that learning process. I know the SWAINSON THRUSH song. They were
singing all around the lake. I would have loved to have had a skilled
Tweeter in the boat to ID the various calls.

The experience provided such sensory overload that I simply put down the
fly rod and reveled in the surroundings.

Grant Hendrickson
ghendric at esd112.wednet.edu