spring birds in the park

This has been a good spring for seeing birds in our local park. In addition to the pair of Yellow-crowned Night Herons that returns each year, we have two and possibly three pairs of Mallards nesting along the stream. During my morning walks with the sprout, I’ve seen the usual suspects (Northern Flickers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Eastern Phoebes, Northern Cardinals, Northern Mockingbirds, Catbirds, Blue Jays, American Crows, Grackles, Carolina Wrens, Song Sparrows, House Sparrows, Starlings, American Robins, Carolina Chickadees, Downy/Hairy Woodpeckers, Mourning Doves, and American Goldfinches) as well as some fun surprises. We’ve come across Brown Thrashers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Common Yellowthroat, and Wood Thrushes foraging in the brush along the stream banks. There was a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks hanging around for long enough that we thought they might be nesting, but we haven’t seen or heard much of them lately. One day we walked along behind a Pileated Woodpecker going from tree to tree; now that the woods north of town have been demolished, I doubt it will be able to find suitable habitat nearby.

While I’m always happy to see birds, I’ve been thrilled to find frogs in the stream! So far I’ve only been able to spot bullfrogs, but I have high hopes for more diversity in years to come. We’ve also startled several bunnies (making the sprout cackle with glee) and seen one or two groundhogs in our travels. No luck yet with our nocturnal friends, although I’m pretty sure something (possum? raccoon? fox? skunk?) is visiting the side yard to chow down on the mulberries.

Now that summer is kicking into gear, I need to think about incorporating a bird bath into my plans for the garden. It’s getting hot out there and the little fluffballs of sparrow, cardinal, blue jay, and robin that we’re starting to see are going to need a place to cool off.

spring birds in the park

birds : Philadelphia Vireo in the backyard

I just spotted a new life bird, a Philadelphia Vireo, moving through the trees in my backyard, a gift of both the fall migration and the weather being cool enough for me to open the blinds while I sit at the computer. It stayed long enough for me to make it outside with both the binoculars and the book and confirm the identification; two windowpanes and a screen introduce a fair amount of uncertainty into these things.

I had just the other day been trying to determine if I had the oomph for any kind of birding, as it’s something I’ve missed this summer what with the heat and the not being able to walk very well and barely being able to open my eyes in the early hours which are ideal for birding. Now that the migration’s on, though, I could probably make it to the lake around 4pm at least once and just see what’s around. Or, I could continue to just look out the window and let the birds come to me!

birds : Philadelphia Vireo in the backyard

birds : new life birds at Greenbelt Park

After being woken up early this morning, we decided to make the most of it and go for a birding walk (something we haven’t done in months). We first headed to Lake Artemesia, and kept on driving when we saw a park ranger directing people into the lot and a big sign announcing a fishing event. Bazillions of people fishing with their kids does not for good songbird sighting make. Since it was cool, windy, and early in the season, we opted to give Greenbelt Park another try. We’d heard that it was nice, but were too scared to get out of the car when we were greeted with a huge BEWARE OF LARGE NUMBERS OF TICKS AND CHIGGERS sign at the entrance. The sign was off when we arrived at 8am this morning, which is probably a good thing; when we left around 10am it was again advising people to be alert for ticks (which is a warning we expect in this part of the country). After making a loop of the park, we located the open picnic and parking area and headed off on the Azalea Trail, a 1.1 mile loop (whereon we did not actually see any azaleas, although some of the understory shrubs might have been ones that had already bloomed, it was hard to tell at a distance).

The first bird we spotted was a Yellow-rumped Warbler, quickly followed by a pair of Eastern Towhees. I’ve only seen them a few times before, and it was a new bird for my partner. Further down the trail we then broke our necks craning up into the very tall trees to eventually locate and identify a Red-eyed Vireo, worth the trouble as a new life bird. It was also a bird we were able to confirm via its song, which allowed us to not feel the need to break our necks a second time when we heard (and eventually did spot) another one a few minutes later. The other exciting find was an Ovenbird in the scrub, a songbird that forages on the ground and looks like a very small thrush. After some time of tracking it through the brambly undergrowth, it obligingly hopped up onto a higher branch so that we could get a nice long look at it. Once back at the parking lot, we saw Barn Swallows and a couple of butterflies: an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and a Red-Spotted Purple (which reminds me that I saw a Mourning Cloak in our town park about a month ago now).

Overall, it was a pleasant trip and the ring road meant that joggers were generally keeping off the hiking trail. As a note for next time, in the interest of keeping ourselves as tick-free as possible, we’ll probably bail from the trail at the end and walk back to the car from the road to avoid having to hike across the playing field (where the Azalea Trail terminates).

birds : new life birds at Greenbelt Park

birds : holiday visit to Lake Artemesia

After a completely gray and rainy Sunday, we took advantage of the beautiful clear weather to walk around Lake Artemesia. I can’t remember the last time I was up there; they’ve completely repaved and widened the path around the lake, and have removed at least one tree the roots of which were growing up through the pavement. Since so many people have the day off for Martin Luther King Day, the parking lot was full and the paths were busy with families, kids and adults walking dogs or on bikes.

The lake was partially frozen, so the usual winter residents were a bit crowded into only two areas of open water. We saw huge numbers of Canada Geese, a couple of pairs of Mallards, a decent flock of Ring-necked Ducks, a dozen or so Ruddy Ducks, about that many American Coots, and loads of Ring-billed Gulls on the lake, both in the water and on the ice. The big excitement was the sighting of a pair of Black Scoters, which marked my first new life birds of the year. There were hardly any other birds active at noon, but we did see a chickadee, a White-throated Sparrow, and a Song Sparrow along the paths and a smallish Red-tailed Hawk circled overhead as we were leaving.

birds : holiday visit to Lake Artemesia

birds : Acadia National Park

During our week in Acadia, we saw (or heard) about fifty birds. I had this idea that we would be finding warblers everywhere we turned, however, they seem to have mostly migrated by now. We did see a number of new species of warblers and other birds, enabling me to add about a dozen new birds to my lifelist (the electronic version of which I plan to update this weekend). This is meant to simply be a tally, as I’ll write at greater length about the efforts we undertook to find them on each day we were there.

Without further ado, the birds we saw in and around Acadia are: Common Loon, Double-Crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, American Black Duck, Mallard, Common Eider, Lesser Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper, White-Rumped Sandpiper, Herring Gull, Great Black-Backed Gull, Black Guillemot, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier, Sharp-Shinned Hawk, Broad-Winged Hawk, Red-Tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Rock Dove, Mourning Dove, Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Eastern Wood-Peewee, Blue Jay, American Crow, Black-Capped Chickadee, Red-Breasted Nuthatch, Golden-Crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, American Robin, Gray Catbird, Cedar Waxwing, Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Black-Throated Green Warbler, Bay-Breasted Warbler, Black-and-White Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Canada Warbler, Song Sparrow, White-Throated Sparrow, Dark-Eyed Junco, White-Winged Crossbill, Pine Siskin, and American Goldfinch.

In addition to these, we also heard a Ruffed Grouse and a Common Raven, and saw on the drive home European Starlings and Wild Turkeys. Also, I am not totally sure about the Bay-Breasted Warbler, as I identified them in fall plumage.

birds : Acadia National Park