[Mnbird] Oak Grove/northern Anoka country lunchtime open woods swale birds

[Pamela Freeman]

I took a lunch break today and walked past a patch of open woods in our
yard that lies between our driveway and the road. It has a swale in it that
is filled now with water, more so than usual, and over the years it has
also filled in some with some willows in one area, providing a thicket and
cover.
I was rewarded in seeing several common yellow throats, male and female
swooping and darting, landing on various vertical reeds and horizontal
branches to snap up whatever they were finding so plentiful and tasty. Also
seen was an unidentified warbler, maybe Nashville? Couldn't see it well
enough to tell. It was not a yellow, was not a palm, was not a yellow rump.
But it was always just enough behind some branch or other that I couldn't
get a good enough look at it with my bins to quite note who it was. That,
or it moved off just as I was getting a mark on it.
But nerveless, I enjoyed seeing it flit here and there. It did some hawking
behaviors, but I think many of the warblers do this, so that in itself is
not very identifying.
We had had a large scry of yellow rumps earlier this week, congregating and
tussling for turns at the jelly feeder, but they seem to have moved on now.

But, my favorite spy of the swale today was a lifer for me, a northern
water thrush, bob bobbing its tail as it waded along, dipping its beak here
and there, or grasping onto vegetation in the shallows just above the water
line.  It so casually strolled, wending a path not straight, but wherever
it seemed to favor, all along the edges of the swale, even going toward the
center a bit, un hurried, but yet with a mission, as it peered into the
water, and then neatly, dipped its bill and snapped up something. Then on
it went, to the next spot.

Lovely day.
I am working from home, but I took a break over lunch to walk down the
driveway. A few moments birding and the rest of my day has been with a
smile on my face.

Good birding to all!

- Pamela
Never give up on a dream just because of the length of time it will take to
accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. - Unknown

“There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.”
― Aldo Leopold
I am one who cannot.
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