[EBB Sightings] Friday Jewel Lake Walk

Dear Birders:i

Yesterday did not look auspicious for our morning bird walk.  As I pulled into the Nature Area parking lot at 8:30 sprinkles thickened, becoming rain. I was surprised to find another birder sitting under the open hatch back of his Subaru sipping a hot beverage. By himself in the parking lot, he had seen a male Varied Thrush perch briefly on the split-rail fence. 

Then two more car pulled up as the rain continued to fall even harder.  We closed our windows against the downpour, enjoyed the sound of rain -- real rain -- pounding down on roof a few inches above our heads  It was soon over  We emerged exhilarated by the chance to walk in this fresh-washed morning with juncoes beginning to trill as the shower tapered off.

In most winters, rivulets would be running in every low spot, but in this driest of years, the thirsty earth had nothing to spare. 

With just four of us, we had no agenda other than to meander and observe.  Along the path to Jewel Lake, we stopped to finger the fresh, emerging leaves of ninebarks, osoberry, creek dogwoods, and twin berries, taking time to look briefly at a Ruby-crowned Kinglet twitching through a bare willow where catkins are beginning to appear.  The air was rich with the bitter-sweet fragrance of the resinous trees. 

What a morning!  The shower had intensified colors of trunk and leaf, plumping up and greening mosses, and bending down grass blades under their burden of moisture. A Hutton's Vireo called repeatedly from across the canyon.  

We detoured off the path to visit the ponds in the meadow. In amongst the cattails we watched newts flipping and twisting, showing their bright orange bellies as they performed their spring acrobatics.  David, who knows newts, pointed out that some of these amphibians may have traveled several miles in their swaggering gait to get to these ponds. For music, we had chorus frogs and the high, sweet song of a Brown Creeper who hitched its way up a nearby tree.

I was eager to see how the shower had affected the lake which a few days earlier in the late afternoon shade had appeared shrunken and desolate.  On this morning, enough rain had fallen so the water flowed over a low spot on the dam.  Maybe a dozen mallards shared the lake with several winter ducks -- a pair of Buffleheads and a male Ring-neck.  A young Double-crested Cormorant occupied a floating log. 

At the end of the lake, a Great Blue Heron stood surrounded by dense rushes.  He allowed us to approach close enough so we could admire his breeding finery -- a lacy overlay of feathers across his back and two long blue-black plumes sweeping down from the back of his head.  At some point of unacceptable attention, the bird rose on its broad wings and flew down the pond to the far shore.

We saw no rarities, recording only the deep satisfaction of a morning well spent.

-Phila Rogers