Monday, May 22, 2017

Holiday Weekend Birding

Sunday was a gloomy day, but with lots of birds.  There was a good variety of species and some with large numbers.  Birding was good except for the three hours it rained (of course it had to rain on the weekend!).  We really don't need rain until about August now with water levels as high as they have been in decades in some cases.  The ground is saturated.

Many species of birds were "checked-off" for the year.

Tennessee Warblers were still in big numbers, and more Blackpoll Warblers were present.

I came across a nice Blue-winged Warbler on south point trail.  It was one of the nicer looking ones I had ever seen.



Flycatchers were certainly numerous with many Alder, some Yellow-bellied and of course Olive-sided.  There were several Olive-sided in the park on Sunday with some ordering 3-beers! No photos.

Vireo from Philadelphia

During the rain, we finally caught up with the elusive Cerulean Warbler, singing near the pony barn. It was singing atop the tallest trees, as they often do.

At the VC feeder area was a "Gambel's" White-crowned Sparrow.  A few of these type slip through each year.  Probably a lot get missed though!



The east beach from south point to dog beach has been good for shorebirds lately.  It was a bit windy there on Sunday though.
While waiting out the rain, I saw 17 Whimbrel fly by.



It was steady birding all throughout the park and difficult to leave for home later in the afternoon.  I was just too tired to continue!



Today, Monday, was a different story.  There were few birds to be found.  As per usual this time of year, the birds were on a mission to head quickly north.

American Redstart



However, things started off nicely with a Worm-eating Warbler on Harrison Trail.  Late Sunday, Todd Hagedorn and Reuven Martin found the bird (unseen) singing for a bit.
This was our first stop this morning and the bird was still present in the same location, constantly singing.  I even got a brief look at the bird before it disappeared deeper into the woods.

I did quite a bit of looking around and did not find many birds.  This Blanding's Turtle was treat to see on Harrison Trail.



I was out of the park by 11 a.m. as there was not much point in trying for anything else.
After lunch I went for a walk at Reid CA.  It is not a place for any number of birds, but there were a couple of Blackpoll and Blackburnian Warblers working through the trees, among the resident birds.

As I have mentioned before, Reid is the place to look for butterflies.  There were several Juvenal's Duskywings and some Silver-spotted Skippers.





In just under a month, I will be looking for the Southern Hairstreak!

2 comments:

  1. Nice Blake! Love the Blue-winged shot!

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    1. Thanks. That blue-winged was one of the brightest ones I have ever seen, so I had to try and photograph it!

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