Brown Creeper

 

I haven't seen a Brown Creeper in quite a while and it has been noticeable absent from my 2012 list. Well, add a check, as a walk through the woodlands along the Kiwa Trail at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge filled that empty square.

I saw several as I neared the end of the trail in the east woods. The whole trail was quite birdie yesterday morning, with Virginia Rails scampering across the trail ahead of me and sneaking among the grasses along the edge of the ponds. 

While the images at the top of this post are the closest I've taken to date, the image directly above is more typical of sightings, as the bird steadily works itself up the trunk of a tree, blending in very well with tree's bark.