Weekly Report - 2018-01-26 - Sparrows & Crows

This past week was an active week in birding at BSES! We had many exciting birds in the gym on Thursday, but we also had quite a few on the trail, too!

When I arrived for my weekly walk, there was a bunch of activity in upper parking lot. House Finches & Song Sparrows were heard and seen foraging among the trees and shrubs. Also, there was a large bustle of American Crow activity on the trail with some flying over but many perched in the forest behind the recess yard.

Once I finally hit the trail, there was a large number of White-throated Sparrows feeding among the hay that is scattered about the trail. In fact, I counted a total of 16 birds feeding along the main corridor of the trail! This number is two birds shy of our all time high count for White-throated Sparrows which was on November 9th, 2015.

Too fast for a photo, one Merlin was seen flying over the forest along the the Spring Meadow Lane trail. This is the sixth property record of this species. All reports of Merlin on the BSES Nature Trail have occurred between 10/12 and 3/1, and all six records were individual flyover birds.

Outside of BSES, I observed one Pileated Woodpecker flying over the intersection of Bethel Road and Sarum Farm Road on 1/26.

Finally, for those who are driving on Bethel Road, I found an old Baltimore Oriole nest that's hanging right over the road. The nest is visible right now because there are no leaves on the tree, and it hangs right above the center lines of the road on a low hanging branch; very easy to see while driving! Look for it when you pass the historic log house driveway entrance (which is private property so do not enter) or hanging above the road at the approximate GPS coordinates: 39.844055, -75.475282.

17 species for the week:

Canada Goose

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Merlin

Blue Jay

American Crow

Carolina Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse

Carolina Wren

American Robin

Northern Mockingbird