Northern waterthrush, Henne

I managed a before-work walk to the Babcock Ridge and Henne preserves, places I needed to check out in advance of a National Trails Day walk I'm leading on June 4th, and en route, I ran into a good friend who was using a small sound device to attempt to lure a White-eyed Vireo within camera range. He wasn't having much luck but he did pass on a sighting along my intended path that I might want to know about and be ready for. Sure enough, the waterthrush he mentioned—from the song, I couldn't quite tell if it was a Northern or a Louisiana—was still in place, and as I heard the bird, I quickly tried to localize it through the big Sigma supertelephoto, which I used in place of binoculars. At this time of year, with the leaves now fully in place on most of our trees, I never have high hopes of spotting any songbirds, but this singer was quite happy to reveal himself as he put on a full show—running through his repertoire of pre-concert preparations before launching into a series of vocalizations. For now—I'm still not sure—I'm going to put him in the Northern Waterthrush camp. If expert opinion causes me to change my mind, I'll return to fix that false ID.

Northern waterthrush, Henne