I'd been humming -- is it Rogers & Hammerstein? --

		"I'm as restless as a spider spinning daydreams,
                  I'm as jumpy as a puppet on a string . . .
		I'd say that I had spring fever. . ."

	when I remembered Sam Dyke, years ago, remarking that
	the first turnoff into Deal Island WMA might be a good
	place to try for rails the first week in April since the grasses
  	would be short enough that they''d be visible right around
	sunrise.

	Now my rational, logical mind said it would be far more
	productive to wait a week or two more into migration,
	but the heart will not be denied . . .
	
	So there I was at 7:00 yesterday . . . and my rational mind
	was snickering . . . not much going on.    Only one shorebird,
	a greater yellowlegs, and a few shovelers out in an open
	lead of water.

	I wandered down to the end of Riley Roberts Road* and
	parked and headed out along the impoundment dike toward
	the sluice gate where I could see birds sitting on the rail.

	When I got close enough to really see them in my scope
	I found   1.) two great egrets,   2.) three snowy egrets,
	3.) and a boat-tailed blackbird all sitting in a row, and
	heard   4.) a clapper rail off to my right, and as I waited a
	while to drink in the early morning light, a    5.) tri-colored
	heron flew over the sluice gate,   6.) Forster's terns flew
	by over some open water and    7.) a seaside sparrow
	began sizzling his call from a nearby reed.

	A moment to bask in.

	And people ask why we go birding?   Hah!  this is why.


	A few incidentals:    there were at least 3 tri-coloreds in
	that area and -- off across the water at the first right-hand
	turn-off in the marsh -- I saw a flock of 8 mute swans and
	wondered if DNR knew of them.

	Leo Weigant
	


* not to be confused with Riley's Lock Road or Jasper Riley Road