ID sought V2

 Here is a very mysterious picture.  

The camera was upside-down (hence the text) but this bird must have just leapt off the ground.  Legs seem pretty long to me.  Ideas?

send to wcreedh@gmail.com

Rara Avis

 Our camera caught a most unusual visitor last week.  Outsiders have been flocking to the NLT in order to add this to their life lists.  From Sibley:

The Dutch Longlegs (Sjoelbak rex) also known as goodneighbor, guitar-headed stork, or golfing stork, is a very large wader. It derives its name from its extreme height. It has a somewhat stork-like overall form and has previously been classified with the storks in the order Fearringtonformes based on this morphology. However, genetic evidence places it with the Delftiformes, where it is commonly seen in  canals. The adult is mainly quiet while the juveniles are more vocal. It lives in tropical North Carolina in large swamps where it is often seen being useful.

The female is smaller, routinely masked and equally accomplished. The young clearly follow her example. Both male and female have an unusual cry, often cited as "coojkies" or "mjor scojnes"

Any Guesses?

 Our camera saw dozens of deer in the last few weeks.  Just one human, one dog, one squirrel and this mysterious critter, zooming in two sequential shots:

Right edge, 2/3 down

Here's the blow-up

I'd say it's this guy.....

Deer me

 After a long drought,we have a new camera in place at the rewilding fence.  So far, there is a plenitude of deer, a few humans, and nothing else.  We'll keep you posted.

New camera

Here are new photos of various critters taken by our game camera.....

The Payoff

 Astute observers say there are a lot fewer deer around this spring, and my roses will testify to that.  About a month ago there was a spectacular concert by Coyotes in the direction of the North Langdon Trail.  Perhaps for those two reasons, we have quite a display of Jack-in-the-Pulpit, both inside and outside the fence.

Maarten Simon-Thomas took these photos.  Others are encouraged to document happenings at NLT by sending pictures and stories to me - wcreedh@gmail.com

Gus Reed

Sit a spell, enjoy the quiet, then get busy!

Thanks to Leonard and Ruth Kreisman, we now have a comfortable

bench near the entrance of the re-wilding area. And thanks to Henry Castner, Ken Benjamin and Maarten Simon-Thomas, we have the concrete pad to put it on.  The trail has been raked and anyone who feels so inclined is welcome to use the rake when they walk the trail.