Cloverdale Farm 2/21--Wilson's Snipe

 Usually I get my year Wilson's Snipe at Shelter Cove. But that entails simultaneously slogging through flooded soccer fields and tippy-toeing around approximately two tons of goose shit. It's...awkward. 

So, when I saw snipes reported at Cloverdale Farm, I decided to go over there this morning; at least I know what I'm stepping in when I walk around those bogs. It didn't long at all for me to flush my first snipe from the bog behind the Visitor's Center. First I flushed some Mallards in the half frozen impoundment, then a snipe came zipping out and dived into the reeds. No one seemed happy about my being there. I walked along the cross dike and sure enough, out came a snipe. Obviously, they weren't going to pose today. 

I walked around the bogs in a figure eight pattern and on another cross dike I flushed 3 more snipes. They make a funny little whinny when they first fly. 

Figuring, correctly, that I had no chance of getting a photograph of these cryptic birds, I turned my attention to a species for which Cloverdale is noted, Eastern Bluebird. With a large and well-maintained series of bluebird boxes and excellent habitat, it isn't hard to find bluebirds anywhere in the park. I heard them immediately upon exiting the car and found two in a field next to the parking. Around the visitor's center there were six, then around the old Christmas tree stand there were probably at least a half dozen. Back in the parking lot, before I left, there were again 5 or 6 flying from tree to tree. When the sunlight hits a male bluebird, the color is luminescent. It's like someone pulls a switch and the bird just glows. 

I noticed in my photograph of one of the males that it was wearing a silver band, but I can't read the band despite enlarging the photo. Besides the snipes and bluebirds, other birds I saw there that make me happy included 2 Brown Creepers and a Golden-crowned Kinglet. 

The full list: 

21 species

Mallard  18

Bufflehead  5

Mourning Dove  1

Wilson's Snipe  4    

Red-bellied Woodpecker  2

Downy Woodpecker  4

Blue Jay  3

Carolina Chickadee  12

Tufted Titmouse  8

Golden-crowned Kinglet  1     Entrance bog

Red-breasted Nuthatch  1

White-breasted Nuthatch  4

Brown Creeper  2     Parking lot & bog

Carolina Wren  1     Heard

Eastern Bluebird  20    

House Finch  3     Near feeders

American Goldfinch  20

Field Sparrow  1

Dark-eyed Junco  2

Song Sparrow  2

Northern Cardinal  3     Heard