Bill Ostrander and I led a small group (9) of SFO students on today’s “local” trip.
After exhausting all of the possibilities on the pond from inside the Lab, including great looks at a pair of bobbing Spotted Sandpipers right before our eyes, we headed down south to the Lindsay-Parson’s Preserve. Since part of the reason for the field trips is to showcase local birding hot spots, we started out on the west section, by the pond and then up the hill from the fire station. Five Great Blue Herons appear to be nesting in the rookery (all with only tops of heads showing - must be on eggs), and there were the expected birds: Tree Swallows, Red-wings, and Grackles. No Green Heron until a couple of folks spotted it on the way out. Yellow Warblers and Common Yellowthroats along the road. Even though the steep climb up the hillside to the water tower has been eased by a new gravel road, it took us over an hour to reach the top. We spent time observing American Redstarts, Ovenbirds, a really close Hooded Warbler, as well as a Veery, multiple Wood Thrushes (heard but not seen), and then close-in Warbling and Red-eyed Vireos. The most spectacular sighting was a trio of Tanagers - two males chasing a female. The contrast of the bright scarlet on the males against the yellow-green of the unfolding leaves was breathtaking. On the way up we watched a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, one of which flew back and forth across the road until a second emerged from a dead tree (nest cavity?) and they both flew off. >From there we took the short hop down to the main preserve parking lot. As we >got out of our cars we were greeted by singing Prairie Warblers and a House >Wren. Then, before we could even get across the small bridge at the bottom of >the ravine, we ran across a singing Blue-winged Warbler, joined shortly >thereafter by a Chestnut-sided Warbler. I know this all sounds rather prosaic >to folks who are out birding a lot. But these “common” birds brought smiles to >the faces of everyone I watched. We didn’t get any farther along the trail than the first open meadow. There were a couple of "bouncing ball” sparrows, a distant Bobolink, and then great looks at a couple of Indigo Buntings. I’ve left out a whole bunch of birds, like the tree-top Blackburnian Warbler, the fly-over Sharp-shinned Hawk, and all the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, but it’s time to close. Altogether we saw/heard a total of 63 species. I think we had a good morning. Bob McGuire -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
