rising@utzoo.uucp (Jim Rising) (02/03/88)
Sharp-tails really can be hard to see. Several years ago I spent about
3 weeks at Churchill, Man. During that time--and I think for the
entire summer--a Sharp-tail could be heard singing every night when it
was dark (between 12 and 2 a.m.) in a sedge marsh across the road from
the Northern Studies Centre where there was always a load of birdwatchers.
Yet, during the entire summer, to the best of my knowledge, not a single
person ever saw the bird, although the marsh was small and many tried.
It also never sang during daylight.
Where they are commoner, they are easier to see. On the breeding grounds
they even have a rather spectacular flight song, uttered from a height
of maybe 10 metres before the bird descends back into the marsh.
--Jim Rising
--
Name: Jim Rising
Mail: Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1
UUCP: {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!rising