On Saturday, my friend Kathy Ehrenberg and I birded parts of the Waterville
Plateau. We didn't see anything extraordinary, but when we stopped in
Mansfield at the Town Bar and Grill (the only food-service establishment
and potential restroom location for many miles around), the regulars at the
bar saw our binoculars and were eager to chat about birds. One man's
family had been farming in the area since his grandfather homesteaded there
in 1889. This grandfather apparently used to say that when the Killdeer
arrive and settle down in the Spring, two weeks later is the best time to
plant, and that's what he did. Pretty interesting.

Another man at the bar asked if we had ever seen "mile-or-mores". We
didn't know what he meant, at first, but it turns out he was talking about
Long-billed Curlews, with their bills a "mile-or-more" long. Either this
is the local name for curlews, or these guys were having a great time
teasing gullible birders form out of town!

Rachel Lawson
Seattle