Date:         Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:26:07 -0500
Reply-To:     Mark Davis <MSDavisMD@AOL.COM>
Sender:       Georgia Birders Online <GABO-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Mark Davis <MSDavisMD@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Cochran Shoals, The Day Before Thanksgiving
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; delsp=yes; format=flowed

Between 10:30 am and noon, it was chilly, in the mid forties, but  
partly sunny with very few joggers.

 From the boardwalk, a dozen or more RUSTY BLACKBIRDS, with their  
fierce white eyes and handsome plumages, foraged in the wet leaf  
litter. A WINTER WREN chip-chip-chipped, bouncing around the base of  
a tree. BOTH KINGLETS lit up sunny patches in the low willow branches  
with their GOLDEN and RUBY CROWNS. Several EASTERN BLUEBIRDS hunted  
from perch to ground for invisible snacks.

More than two hundred COMMON GRACKLES on rusty-hinged wings came  
swirling and chattering over to roost in the oaks overhead and feed  
on the mistletoe and poison ivy fruit, dislodging showers of tiny  
acorns to the ground all around me. Suddenly, with an explosion of  
wing beats, they all spooked at once, as a juvenile COOPER’S HAWK  
sailed in to perch in a nearby pine.

Just visible through openings in the low branches, a pair of stunning  
WOOD DUCKS glided somewhat nervously along the back channels of the  
marsh.

It was a day to be thankful for many reasons.

There was nary a turkey to be seen.

Best,

Mark Davis
Fulton County
Atlanta, GA

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