Friends of the Limberlost
  • Home
  • Resources
    • Maps
    • Teachers
    • Mobile app and iBook
    • Programs >
      • Birds >
        • Beneficial Birds
        • Chimney Swifts
        • Eagles
        • Extreme Birds
        • Indiana's Raptors
        • Owls of Limberlost
        • Peregrine Falcons
        • Vultures
      • Insects >
        • Dragonflies
        • Moths
      • Rent-a-Naturalist
    • News
  • Blog
  • Videos
  • Bird's Eye View
  • Contact Us

Strange Days

2/20/2022

 
Wherein strange days occur in the Land of the Limberlost

By Curt Burnette

Strange days. They began in May. A bold and colorful bird was spotted in the Limberlost Swamp Nature Preserve on the Jay County side of County Line Road. This yellow and black bird was a male yellow-headed blackbird, a handsome western U. S. relative of our red-winged blackbird. These birds are very common out west, but are a rare site in northeastern Indiana. Many birders (as bird-watchers are now called) came to the Limberlost to see him. This wayward fellow hung out at one particular spot singing his song of love, but since the Limberlost is not normal yellow-headed blackbird territory, there were no females of his own kind to hear his mating calls. So, after a couple of weeks of performing for a non-existent audience, he departed. 

Then in early June, about a quarter of a mile away from where the blackbird had temporarily taken up residence, another unusual bird was sighted. Just outside the Limberlost Swamp preserve, in a flooded farm field, a glassy ibis was seen busily foraging in the shallow water. Glosssy ibis are common on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, but very rare for northeastern Indiana. This was only the second sighting in 40 years or so. Again, many birders came to see it, some from as far away as the Louisville area. 

A couple of days into the ibis visit, it was noticed that another unusual-looked bird had appeared in the same field. This was yet a third rare bird to northeastern Indiana --a Hudsonian godwit, a bird that should have been in its breeding grounds in the Arctic. As with the ibis, the last time a godwit had been seen was about 40 years ago. Unbelievably, within a few weeks time, three rare birds had shown up in the Limberlost within a quarter mile of each other, two in the same field at the same time!

But wait, the story gets eve more unbelievable. One evening, while the ibis and godwit were still hanging out in the field, some birders watching them realized a third type of rare bird had made an appearance near them. Black-necked stilts had been seen briefly in the Limberlost Swamp Nature Preserve in May for the last three years. Two or three of them seen twice in the same year, but now they had joined the other two rare birds in the field. Three rare birds were standing in the same field at the same time, a few weeks after another rare bird had been seen just a little way down the road!

Before this happened, I would have said one rare bird sighting was unusual, two rare birds sighted at the same time in the same place was extraordinary, and three rare bird sightings in the same place at the same time was almost impossible. Add to that another rare bird sighting in the same area a short time before, and a historic flood in that area a short time after, and I would have said it was impossible for all those things to happen in that small space of time in one area. Shows you what I know Strange days indeed.

Source: Berne Tri-Weekly, Limberlost Notebook, July 2015.
Picture
Yellow-headed blackbird
Picture
Glossy ibis

    Author

    The volunteers and staff of Limberlost

    Archives

    December 2023
    November 2023
    January 2023
    October 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.