Subject: Ovenbird Sat. a.m.
Date: Jun 24 15:47:14 2000
From: osprey at nwinfo.net - osprey at nwinfo.net


I got to the Ovenbird site this morning at 5:35 a.m. It was a pretty
interesting experience. One car was there already but I couldn't see anyone
looking for or at the bird. I heard it singing as my feet hit the ground.
It sounded like it was straight in front of me, maybe 30-40 feet away and
15-20 feet off the ground on the east side of the road. In the next three
minutes, it kept singing and seemed to move north. Then Marv Breece came
out of the woods and told me he had the bird in view. I joined him on a
small trail about 60 feet north of my car. This would be just north of where
the marker tape is tied to a tree. He had had the Ovenbird in view for ten
minutes before he called me. It was sitting 4-5 feet off the ground about 20
feet in front of him the entire time was I hearing it from the road. We
watched it for another 5-6 minutes until it flew across the road and
continued singing.

This bird must really be able to do tricks with its voice. It certainly
fooled me as to its position. If Marv had not been there, I would have had
a very difficult time finding it. It did not seem to respond much to Marv's
tape.

After leaving the Ovenbird, we went to the White Pass Campground on the east
side of Leech Lake at the summit of White Pass looking for Three-toed
Woodpecker. We dipped on Three-toed but did get a good view of a
Black-backed Woodpecker east of the lake along one of the cross country ski
trails.

Denny Granstrand
Yakima, WA
* * * * * * * * * * *
* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* osprey at nwinfo.net *
* * * * * * * * * * *