A friend and I took a mid-afternoon walk along the Luther Goldman Bird
Trail -- my first trip to Artemesia in about two years and my friend's
first time there We arrived sometime around 12:30-1:00 and on our
leisurely stroll saw BOTH male and females of the Orchard Oriole AND
both Baltimore Orioles at close range. There were numerous purple
martins, tree swallows, and a barn swallow or too. We could hear the
instant low "poo poo pooooooinng" of a cuckoo, but weren't able to
find them in the thick growth along the edge of the Indian Creek
trail. Many Eastern Kingbirds were also in attendence. Robins, crows,
and redwinged blackbirds galore. At one point this strange, strange
cackling noise came directly over our heads; we looked up to see a green
heron in flight, soon to perch at the top of a tree and "do that neck
thing the do" where first its really long and striped and cryptic and
then they pull it back into their shoulders and it's another bird enirely.
As an aside; I've been home on medical disabililty for over a month and
on sunny days have been heading over to the Cedar Creek nondeomenational
church grownds -- looks like a big old barn with a historic house
collaspsing next to it, on Spencerville Road in Spencerville, across
from Peach Orchard road. Anyway, they have a nature and prayer walk
there across old fields that were once part of a farm, that go down into
some small woods with a tiny creek and best of all, a feeling of silence
and seclusion where the birds are the only thing you hear. In the last
week there I got great looks at a Life Bird for me -- the White-Eyed
Vireo. I was psyched! Also over there in profusion are pine and
prairie warblers, bluebirds, tree swallows,Cardinal, Robins, Chicadee,
Titmice. My understanding is that anyone in the community who would
like to walk their property and either birdwatch, or dayhike or read
the posted suggested religious quotes and thoughts it brings to mind in
such a setting is welcome to go visit, anytime.
Laura Appelbaum
Cloverly, MD
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