Subject: Reifel
Date: Apr 9 11:19:23 2004
From: Connie Sidles - csidles at isomedia.com


Hey tweets, Fellow bird-master Roberta Roberts and I stole a day yesterday
to drive up to Reifel Refuge in BC. We saw okay birds (see list below) until
the last half hour, when we were walking back to the car. We had been seeing
signs about the nesting sandhill cranes all over the park. The signs read:
"BEWARE nesting cranes BEWARE." Sure enough, we rounded a turn on the path,
and there marching toward us were two immense cranes. The male in front
decided that we needed seeing to, so he began advancing with battle in his
bright orange eyes. I got behind our scope tripod, and Roberta got behind
me. The male stopped when he was within stabbing range (2 feet) and stood
there. Cranes have immense patience, you know, and Connies don't, so it was
touch and go for about 10 minutes about who would move first. In the end,
the cranes walked by on one side of us, as we sidled around our tripod on
the other side. When we had all switched positions, the male turned back and
started toward us again. So we all stopped again. Every time we tried to
back up a step, the male took a step toward us. So we stopped and waited
while he made up his mind what to do. Eventually a couple of other hapless
birders rounded the bend, and the male decided to focus on them. So we
skedaddled, callously leaving the new birders to their fate. Actually, I
think the newly arrived couple weren't birders but rather clueless
photographers. But the guy had his camera mounted on a tripod, so I figured
he was sufficiently armed.

Altogether an exhilarating experience. Further up the trail, a Canada goose
with thoughts of evil started hissing at us. I looked him in the eye and
told him he hadn't a chance of scaring us, not after the crane - he just
didn't have the equipment. The goose gave us a disgruntled look and waddled
off. - Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com

What we saw:
pied-billed grebe
great blue heron
sandhill crane
Canada goose
snow goose
mallard
gadwall
green-winged teal
American wigeon
northern pintail
northern shoveler
wood duck
greater scaup
lesser scaup
bufflehead
hooded merganser
American coot
greater yellowlegs
dunlin
mew gull
glaucous-winged gull
turkey vulture
bald eagle
red-tailed hawk
northern harrier
ring-necked pheasant
rock pigeon
mourning dove
rufous hummingbird
northern flicker
tree swallow
Steller's jay
American crow
black-capped chickadee
marsh wren
Bewick's wren
ruby-crowned kinglet
golden-crowned kinglet
American robin
European starling
common yellowthroat
spotted towhee
song sparrow
fox sparrow
white-crowned sparrow
golden-crowned sparrow
red-winged blackbird
Brewer's blackbird
house sparrow
house finch