Monday, May 28, 2012

Ashokan Farewell and Warbling Chestnut-sided Bird

Fiddlin' Around

Snowy Egret - Farmington Bay

Western Kingbird - Farmington Bay

Lark Sparrow

Black-necked Stilt - Farmington Bay


Sage Thrasher

Willow Flycatcher
Got wind of a reported Chestnut-sided Warbler at Fielding Garr Ranch on Antelope Island. Arrived about 9:00, which is when the place opens and found that the "Cowboy Legends" music and poetry festival was being held there. Seems like we ran into the same situation a couple of years ago on Memorial Day. Fortunately, it was early enough to get a glimpse of a few birds including a couple of flycatchers, and to HEAR the Chestnut-sided Warbler singing in the fragmites near the spring. In the background was the general chaos of kids running around, and a young women  sawing away on a fiddle and doing her best to make sense of the tune "Ashokan Farewell." The waltz was made famous in Ken Burns "Civil War," but dates only from the early 1980s. Funny how it has found its way into the repertoire of authentic cowboy songsters. We finished the our birding at Farmington Bay. Nothing out of the ordinary, but plenty of good views of birds in the temporary ponds near the entrance.

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