The fenced off area at the South end of the baseball fields in
Prospect Park was loaded with sparrows today. The nice mix of sparrows
was dominated by a very large flock of juncos and chippings. I had
gone to the area to look for a Vesper Sparrow spotted earlier in the
morning by Rob Bate. A group of us (including a returning Rob Bate)
eventually relocated it at around 12:30pm. While scanning the flock
for "something different", I realized that it was actually a pair of
vespers feeding near the edge of the fence. At times, it was a little
frustrating scanning through the sparrow flock as the birds were
routinely being spooked by a Merlin, Red-tailed Hawk and Cooper's
Hawk. By around 2pm, Tom Stephenson, Rob & I walked north along the
Long Meadow to the "Sparrow Bowl". As soon as we arrived I spotted
another Vesper Sparrow feeding near a badly worn stretch of grass. I
believe that the total sparrow count for Prospect Park for the day was
7 species, far short of our 13 species sparrow fallout on October 23rd
of last year.
Good birding,
Rob
Location: Prospect Park
Observation date: 10/19/10
Number of species: 37
Wood Duck 9
Mallard X
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Merlin 1
Herring Gull (American) X
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Red-bellied Woodpecker X
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) X
Eastern Phoebe 2
Blue-headed Vireo 2
Blue Jay 3
American Crow 14
Black-capped Chickadee 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Winter Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 12
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Hermit Thrush 6
American Robin X
European Starling X
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 5
Chipping Sparrow 200
Vesper Sparrow 3 (2 individuals seen at fenced area on
baseball fields. 1 seen at Sparrow Bowl.)
Song Sparrow 4
White-throated Sparrow X
White-crowned Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco 300
American Goldfinch X
House Sparrow X
The City Birder Weblog
http://citybirder.blogspot.com
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