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[Mark Stackhouse <westwings at sisna dot com>]

This is a message from David, who is apparently suffering cosmic
difficulties in cyberspace . . .

[I have tried four times since last Friday to post this on the net,
seemingly to no avail.  I hope the information is not too outdated to be
of any use to anyone if I ever do get it posted.  More recently,
yesterday I saw a small flock of three Lark buntings along I-15 south of
Tremonton.  Here's that posting that just won't post:]

Has anyone else noticed how the hundreds of thousands of peeps at Bear
River MBR were absent by last weekend?  The same mudflats that were
teeming with uncountable Western sandpipers a couple of weeks ago were
nothing short of lonely by the 4th.  There were the odd godwits,
avocets, spotted sandpipers, and even the occasional snowy plover, but
what an incredible difference!  I am delighted and awed by the rhythms
of nature.  A sudden absence of plenty can be as heart stopping and
dramatic as its arrival, its starkness superimposed on the memory of
past life and the knowledge that it will come again.

The mud flats of the main pond were a little drier, but not to the point
where one would expect all the masses of shorebirds to leave, were it
not for that mysterious internal clock that pulls their heartstrings and
makes them long for the mangrove-edged mudflats that await them beneath
a tropical sun (perhaps it is more the sensible, near-equal rhythm of
the tropical day-night cycle which draws them after the endless day of
the  arctic tundra, full of toil and little rest.  Perhaps they are
drawn more by the promise of the quiet stars and sleep than fear of
coming snows).

P.S.  The pond to the east of the main loop had more shorebirds than
anywhere else at BRMBR last Saturday, Aug 4th.  Perhaps someone else can
provide a more updated report for those who might wish to go out there
this weekend.  Not everyone is impressed by the sight of an empty
flat...

Good "hunting"

- --David


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