Eno's Pond 3/2--Greater Yellowlegs

Greater Yellowlegs, Eno's Pond

It sounded like a freight train was running through the backyard when I awoke this morning; March living up to its cliche. Besides blowing down a feeder and scattering lawn ornaments hither & yon, the wind put a limit on viable birding areas. Nothing like standing on the shore of a bay or lake with a 40 MPH wind in your face, scoping birds in the chop.

However, since I had to make run to Forked River for cat insulin, I thought a walk through the woods of Eno's Pond could conceivably be done. And that was true--while I was in the woods, the wind was not a bother at all. There weren't many birds, but I could stay on my feet.

It was also low tide there and when I peered out on to the mud flats of Bridge Creek (of which Eno's Pond is really just a widening) I thought it would be perfect for shorebirds. But not a shorebird to be seen. I turned and went back into the woods which border the creek, telling myself that maybe something would appear by the time I got to the next vantage point. And 10 minutes later, when I walked to the edge of the creek, there were 12 Greater Yellowlegs that weren't there earlier. They weren't calling, so I didn't hear them fly in. A single Dunlin was keeping company with them. The yellowlegs were year birds for me, though I'm surprised how long it took me to come across them this year. I continued on looping through all the trails, coming upon little patches of birds here and there. I was hoping the wind would die down, but it never did and since there was no real good reason for staying out, I went down Route 9, got Peeve's insulin, came home, gathered the blown around gee-gaws from the drainage basin and put the feeder back up. The whole list, all 15 species:
American Black Duck 1
Mallard 6
Hooded Merganser 1 first pond
Great Blue Heron 1
Dunlin 1
Greater Yellowlegs 12 low tide, plenty of mud.
Downy Woodpecker 1
Carolina Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 1
American Robin 8
Dark-eyed Junco 4
American Goldfinch 1