Subject: Scooping Shovelers!!!!!!!!!.................from S.W. Washington
Date: Mar 23 20:09:50 1998
From: Gerald Hamilton - gerald at e-z.net


..............Went hiking around the Ridgefield NWR. Sunday afternoon.
Cloudy but no rain in the afternoon. Saw zillions and zillions of Am.
Coots and No. Shovelers everwhere!!!!! Scattered among them were some
Ruddy ducks, Scaups, a few Ring-necks, a couple of Cinnamon Teals and
Gadwalls, Green-winged Teals, rafts of Bufflehead Pied-billed grebes, A
couple of Pintails and the ever-present Herons and
Mallards-----------overall.....nothing to crow about!!!!!!!!!
...............Swans gone from Rest Lake. Sandhill Cranes heard towards
the south towards Campbell Lake, but none present where I was walking
around. Marsh Wrens and Red-winged Blackbirds numerous, along with some
Tree Swallow arrivals. Hawks noticablly absent, but did observe 1 Bald
Eagle. One Belted Kingfisher was eyeing a brackish slough. Again,
nothing extraordinary during during this quieter period between the
departure of the winter migrants, and the arrival of the migrant and
summer resident songbirds.
................Many Canada Geese ....were most noisy during the
afternoon.....competing with the croaking of the frogs. Getting off the
gravel roads and hiking along the sloughs and wetlands was most
enjoyable (.....if you didn't mind getting the bottom of your shoes
caked with 'goose droppings'!!!!!!). I keep praising my Creator for
creating the mydrids of winged fowls that sing symphonies for me as I
stroll the fields and thickets. It sure carries me away from the clatter
and screeches of conveyors and machinery at my work-a-day world, and
draws me closer to my Creator.
.................You all now have a good day, ya' hear!!!!!!!!

Gerald Hamilton
Brush Prairie, Wash.
gerald at e-z.net