WSB Monday

by Ian Lynch

The frustration of not being on territory looking at birds last week has now been replaced by total immersion scouting.  I left Massachusetts late on Sunday and drove through the night getting to Witchity HQ South around 3:30 AM; sleep deprivation being a key element of World Series conditioning.  I unloaded my stuff into cabin 18 at Avalon Campground, conveniently left open by Marleen and the friendly staff here.  Then before getting some sleep I set up our feeding station: a hummingbird feeder, a dish of mixed seed and a block of suet.  The reason for choosing this campground was the prior appearance of Red-headed Woodpeckers, so this set-up was an ambitious attempt to bait this bird for Saturday.  I went to bed with bird sounds playing on a loop on my laptop ready for the great adventure to begin.

When I got up in the morning (OK, so it was only a few hours later) the first bird sound I heard was a repeated buzzy call that immediately put me in mind of the eagerly anticipated woodpecker.  Just as I was beginning to think that the week had started with a bang, I realized that I was listening to a Great Crested Flycatcher. As it turns out, while we are happily domesticated in our cozy cabin, we picked the wrong campgrounds this year as a very cooperative pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers is setting up house a few miles up the road at another campground.

Scouting has been going rather well.  Our driver, my brother Ken, joined me in the south on Monday afternoon.  Carl spent the weekend camping up north, went to work for two days and is now again camped out in the northern woods.  Dave has been making wild overnight forays (often starting at 2 AM) north from his home near Princeton.  And Chris (aka Crew Member #6) has taken special missions to Brigantine, National Park, and Salem County.  The good news is that we have more scouting power this year than ever before.  The bad news is that we will have no excuses!

10:46 PM - Monday, May 8, 2006 - post comment