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Re: Nighttime Birds

Subject: Re: Nighttime Birds
From: Walter Knapp <>
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 22:00:58 -0400
Rich Peet wrote:
> Nite birding last night was a success. 3 for 3.
> LeConte Sparrow at 10 feet
> Nelson's Sharptailed Sparrow at 30 yards
> Yellow Rail at 30 yards but we failed in being able to hold the bird.
> 
> In search of the yellow rail at midnight.
> In MN which is known for being the land of 10,000 lakes actually has 
> more.  Some lakes do die though.  A dead lake is grown over into a 
> wet bog where the ground under you bounces as you walk on the dead 
> vegetation under the shallow water within.  Sometimes you would sink 
> and your legs were not long enough to bring yourself back up to the 
> bed level.  The grasses vary from chest level to above your head.
> 
> Attached is a 5 meg download for those with fast connections.  It was 
> edited for adult content and this 5 min segment covers about 1 1/2 
> hours in the water in search of audio and video of the Yellow Rail.  
> None of us were sure we were all going to make it out before dawn. 
> Our overall attitude was very good considering the danger we got 
> ourselves into. But we got the bird audio but no bird in hand video 
> this time.

Thanks Rich, sounds absolutely fun! I've been in that type of marsh. 
Love places like that!

The first time I recorded frogs was on a herp foray. One of the tracks 
was where the entire group went out into a swamp at night to get at some 
barking treefrogs. Lots of sloshing around in the grass and brush in 
about 2' of water filled with calling frogs. The x rated noises from me 
when I stepped into a posthole (or something of that shape). Wide enough 
to just fit my leg, deep enough for all of it. And I had recorder and 
mic in one hand, and digital camera in the other. Neither recorder or 
camera got wet. I'm not sure how I did it, but I managed to get out by 
myself. The barking treefrog on my website on John Jensen's arm was a 
photograph I took a few minutes later.

Are we having fun!

Walt




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