Flooded Fields Bring New Species!

This morning's visit to the park is one I will never forget. Having undergone some minor back surgery just days ago, I am up and walking short distances but need to sit for longer periods. I recently purchased a little fold-out hunting stool and decided I would put it to use today. I arrived at the east parking lot off of Oliver to find the baseball fields flooded worse than I've ever seen them before. The water is nearly all the way up to the parking lot! Standing in the shallow water I quickly noticed a lot of "Shorebirds" which is something I don't see a lot of at the park. But these did not appear to be the Sandpipers I've seen before. My first hunch turned out to be correct –both Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs! I've never seen either of these 2 species at the park before, and getting to see them right next to each other made for an easy comparison in size and build. This first photo here shows the Greater in the lower left, with the Lesser behind, and finally a Canada Goose behind that just for size comparison. Both birds blend in incredibly well with their surroundings but the Lesser is just a little tougher to pick out due to their smaller size. If you are not keeping an eye on them, it is really easy to lose sight of them against the water. Later I caught these 2 Lesser Yellowlegs walking right underneath the Goose which shows just how small they are. I just couldn't get enough of these birds and every so often I would stand up and slowly carry my stool about 5 feet closer to see them better. I shot hundreds of photos and even captured some in flight. When a few of them flew in the same direction and landed again to my left, I realized there were at least a dozen or more birds! Watching them walk through the water on their long legs was fun and it was so neat to observe new birds at the park. But then a couple of other birds caught my eye. These were even smaller than the Lesser Yellowlegs, but had a noticeably long bill. The first thing that popped into my head was Woodcock and I started taking shots quickly before they moved on. Then out of nowhere, a huge helicopter came thundering by quite closely. It hardly passed me by before turning around again and coming back nearly right above me! At first I thought the DNR was surveying the flooding but I realized after a 3rd pass that they were spraying for mosquitoes! I took some photos of the copter but he was so close I could read the words "mosquito control" on it's side with my naked eye. On one particular pass, the pilot actually skimmed the tops of the trees with the landing gear and I saw twigs break and fly! After scaring away most of the birds I was watching, I hiked around a little to the south but found the trail was impassible due to flooding. But at the edge I clearly heard both Rusty Blackbirds and well as a Brown Thrasher calling. On my way back I ran into a friend of mine who is an expert birder. I described the smaller birds with a long bill to him and he immediately asked if they were striped "parallel" or "perpendicular" to their body. I remembered this trick from a previous bird outing and then realized that what I saw were probably not Woodcock but Snipe! As we cursed the helicopter overhead for making so much noise, we scanned the fields for birds with our binoculars. Later another mutual birder friend joined us and we spotted a few Snipe again. I just read that it's extremely difficult to determine in the field, the difference between a Wilson's Snipe and a Common Snipe. But since it appears the Wilson's is by far more common to our area, I am labeling them Wilson's Snipe for now. But I can't end this post without mentioning the multitude of other birds –especially waterfowl that were also present today. Not only were there dozens of Blue-winged Teals, but to my surprise, there were also Green-winged again! I thought for sure I had seen the only one to ever visit the park a few weeks back on April 12th. But today there was not just one but 3 of them! Well, at least 3 males to be sure. They are just such beautiful birds and I could easily spend all day stalking them for a better photo. More than once I got to see the Green-winged paired up with groups of Blue-winged which was really a neat sight –but always too far away. A few other birds spotted today: Bald Eagle, Osprey, Cooper's Hawk, Yellow-rumped Warbler, American Coot, Pied-billed Grebe, Red-winged Blackbird, Rusty Blackbird, Common Grackle, Blue Jay, Northern Harrier, Cedar Waxwing, and a possible Broad-winged Hawk sighting!