Marsh Birds

This turkey looks iridescent and glossy in the sun.  We saw male turkeys displaying themselves in front of the glass windows at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge nearly all day.  Visitors could sit on a bench mere inches away from the turkey who I think was admiring himself in the glass.

We took a hint at the location of blooming Dutchman's breeches and were able to find them.

Today we went to some training on the secretive Minnesota marsh birds at the Minnesota National Wildlife Refuge which is very close to the MSP airport.  We arrived early for the 9 o'clock start of the training but the day went fast.  We spent the morning inside the building testing our equipment to make sure our playback calls were between 70 and 80 decibels.  We learned about the protocol for the marsh bird survey which is more complicated than the frog survey and the owl survey.  The information was complicated and challenging yet interesting.  After lunch we traveled to a place called Bass Ponds where we got to try conducting a real survey.  One this survey we had one speaker playing our playback calls and another speaker imitating real birds calling randomly in the wild. So we tried our best to hear the recordings while 747's were flying right over our heads. The six hours I spent studying the calls of marsh birds paid off because I felt pretty confident about most of the calls I heard.  I had never met any of the other people doing this survey before but they were all friendly and interesting.  By the time 5 p.m. rolled around I had had my sensory fill of listening.  On the ride back to the refuge I was trying to identify the squeaking brakes of the Volvo I was riding in.  And on the way back the light rail train sounded very much like an American Bittern.  I may study marsh birds further but not today.  My brain can not take any more listening for birds today.