Greater Yellowlegs

Yesterday we made a trip to Fairview Drive Wetlands near the Salem Airport for a birdwalk.  I was hoping for some water and some new migrating water fowl or shore birds after a long dry summer.  There wasn't much water, but to my great suprise I did get the one bird I was hoping the most to see, a Greater Yellowlegs.  Jeanette and I have been birding at Fairview Wetlands for 19 years now.  We started walking there from our house on Reed Court in 1998.  Birding was mainly an excuse to get in a good walk.  For fun we started making a list of the birds we would see between our house and the wetlands.  In October of that year we spotted four to six birds we weren't sure of with long yellow legs and a strange high pitched cry.  I spent a lot of time looking at bird books before I could conclude that they were Greater Yellowlegs.  Now all these years later when ever we think of birding at Fairview Wetlands, it brings a smile to our faces as we recall the Greater Yellowlegs and their piercing call.