Weekly Report - 2017-10-27 - Two Weeks in One!
After a week's absence in the weekly report, I'm happy to announce that BQ IS BACK BABY!
I missed my Friday morning walk last week since I was visiting the Cape May Fall Migration Festival. I can't report much on the birds of last week, but I will say that this morning's walk was an indication that our wintering species have established a strong presence on the nature trail!
The trail was peppered with Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows. These sparrows have already been here for over two weeks, but this was the first morning walk that I've had Dark-eyed Juncos this season. The first Dark-eyed Juncos I heard this season were in the parking lot on Wednesday morning this past week! Want to see them? The most reliable place to find them is under the Eastern White Pine trees between the playground and the cafeteria entrance.
I saw an usual sighting this morning: an Eastern Phoebe landed in the basswood tree along the main trail, but it had NO TAIL! Eastern Phoebes are known for their tail bobbing behavior so it was shocking to see one without any tail at all. It could have lost it in some sort of incident, but I think that because there were no feathers at all that this bird may be molting, or changing over its feathers, before it migrates!
The highlight of the morning was the kinglet show! Conditions were pretty poor for photography until the last five minutes or so due to the early morning darkness. When the sun came out, the bird activity increased tenfold! Both Golden-crowned Kinglet and Ruby-crowned Kinglet were bopping around at eye level along the edges of trail and parking lot. These birds were the smallest birds I observed on my morning walk, but they gave me the best photography views due to the increased sunlight!
23 Species for the Week:
Bethel Springs E.S.--Nature Trail Oct 27, 2017 7:06 AM Traveling 0.60 miles 47 Minutes All birds reported? Yes Comments: Walked the whole length of the trail. Conditions were cold with temperatures in the upper 40s. Lots of wintering songbirds have arrived! Submitted from eBird for iOS, version 1.5.4 Build 149 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 Mourning Dove 1 Downy Woodpecker 1 Eastern Phoebe -- Landed in the basswood on the main trail, missing its tail! 3 Blue Jay 5 American Crow 3 Carolina Chickadee 1 White-breasted Nuthatch 4 Carolina Wren 6 Golden-crowned Kinglet 5 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 Hermit Thrush 12 American Robin 4 European Starling 4 Dark-eyed Junco 12 White-throated Sparrow 5 Song Sparrow 1 Eastern Towhee 2 Northern Cardinal 9 Red-winged Blackbird 2 Common Grackle 2 House Finch 3 American Goldfinch
