Kristin Purdy

A black-necked stilt nests in flooded grasslands along the county road that...

Flooding along the county road leading to Bear River Refuge has been a curse and a blessing this year. Sometimes the deluge has closed the road. But when the road is open, birding is the finest I've seen with the extra perks of new pavement, many pull-offs and several parking areas adjacent to prime marsh habitats.

The fun begins just west of the interstate before even passing the visitor's center. White-faced ibis, marsh opportunists, graze in flooded areas that have been dry for the last few years. Cliff and barn swallows course low over the saturated marsh grasses while gathering insects. A mallard pair, alert, stretches their necks and heads like periscopes above the grass. Common ravens survey the scene and croak from power pole perches where their unkempt stick nests punctuate the crossbars.

Something long and tawny-colored was tearing around a wet meadow northeast of Huntsville one morning last week. What on earth...? It sure didn't look like the stately sandhill cranes I expected to find there. And the big black lump dissecting the racer's path -- was that a manmade object or something else?

'Awesome! Awesome!' exclaimed a 10-year old as he spied a bald eagle through a spotting scope for the first time at Salt Creek Waterfowl Management Area. Between bouts of 'Awesome!', the boy pulled away from the eyepiece and scanned for the eagle with his unaided eye, not believing that the dark speck sitting on the dike road was the same bird he could see super-sized with the scope.

A western screech owl peered at me over 20 feet of woodland floor that was choked with fallen logs and blackberry vines. He was nearly invisible in his tree cavity due to his natural camouflage and several gnarled branches intersecting my view.