Bobolink, Miner

The sun finally made a reappearance in the afternoon, and with the promise of songbirds on the wing, I visited an old "friend"—the Miner refuge where I'd spent so much time a couple of years ago involved in a biological survey. I hadn't been there since last October, and I had been asked to make a return visit this spring to determine its suitability for a public butterfly and wildflower walk in the summer. Today seemed a perfect time for reconnaissance, and I had another reason as well. Miner, which features a 20-acre-plus grassland—the rarest of the rare habitats in our area—had become a magnet for Bobolinks, glorious and equally rare grasslanders, and I wanted to see if they'd returned. At first, I didn't spot any, and I was more than a little down. They certainly should have been at the refuge by now, and I was beginning to fear that management efforts to help out a population of New England Cottontails had taken a toll on the birds. Not to worry. Later in my walk, I heard a song that is firmly in my DNA, and in short order, I watched as numerous Bobolinks rocketed out of the knee-high grass. I carefully aimed the Sigma supertelephoto, and while the shot is not perfect, it's a start.