Yard Birds

Birdwise, we are on the margin of two seasons- fall migration is trailing off, but there are still plenty of late migrants around, and winter birds are starting to arrive. The combination made for some pretty good birding in my yard yesterday. 

I put up my bird feeders on Saturday, hoping for Purple Finches or siskins. No sign of them yet, but when I was filling one of the feeders I spotted a Hermit Thrush on our neighbors' fence- a yard bird. Two Fish Crows flying over were also nice. 

By Sunday, the feeders were hopping with bird activity, and I counted 13 species there, including Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Cardinal, and Carolina Wren. The majority of the birds were chickadees, with a fair number of titmice and juncos as well. They were quite tame, with one chickadee briefly landing on my finger, and were unconcerned by me taking photos of them. 

Chickadees:

 

Titmice:

 
 

At one point, I looked up, and was very surprised to see a group of hawks- 2 Turkey Vultures, 3 Buteos, and an Accipiter. I ran inside to get binoculars, and for the next couple hours did a hawkwatch, tallying 84 raptors. The species counts were:

Turkey Vulture- 20

Red-tailed Hawk- 21

Red-shouldered Hawk- 5

Cooper's Hawk- 3

Sharp-shinned Hawk- 18

Osprey- 3

American Kestrel- 1

Unidentified Raptor- 10

Unidentified Buteo- 2

Unidentified Accipiter- 1

Non-raptor migrants were also present, with a few flocks of Canada Geese, a flock of Brant, and a few dozen Double-crested Cormorants all flying over. 

When a small bird with a forked tail fly by, I thought I might have found a siskin, but when I refound it, I realized it was actually a Golden-crowned Kinglet, another yard bird. 

I saw 34 species of birds from my yard, which proves that to find plenty of birds, all you need to do it fill up a feeder, or just look up!

More Warblers and Some Hawks

I birded at the Greenwich Audubon Sanctuary this morning, seeing 12 warblers, including many in morning flight, Blue-headed Vireo, Scarlet Tanager, Bobolink, and Lincoln's Sparrow. The hawk flight was also quite good, and the total was around 800 when I left. 12 eagles, 2 merlins, a few harriers and coops, and lots of kestrels and sharpies joined the 600 or so Broadwings.

Warblers:

Yellow Warbler- 3
Chestnut-sided Warbler- 5-8
Magnolia Warbler- 7+, with some during morning flight
Black-throated Green Warbler- 7-10, with probably many more unidentified at morning flight
Blackburnian Warbler- 1
Prairie Warbler- 1, at morning flight- landed briefly
Palm Warbler- 1
Blackpoll Warbler- 10
Black-and-White Warbler- 3-5
American Redstart- 15+, with probably dozens unidentified at morning flight.
Ovenbird- 1
Common Yellowthroat- 6-7

Greenwich Cranes

(from Wikipedia)

I headed over to Greenwich Hawkwatch to try for a golden eagle today. I failed, but saw some better birds, as well as the usual hawks.

Raptor Highlights: A few harriers (my favorite raptors), lots of red-shoulders, a kestrel, bald eagle, many coopers hawks and sharp-shinned hawks.

Also, a few migrating common loons were interesting. A skein of Canada geese numbering almost 190 birds flew over as well.

The best birds were two large birds that one of the hawkwatchers picked up over the nature center. There had been 5 sandhill cranes flying over earlier in the week, so he quickly realized that that was what they were. We all watched them fly by for a couple minutes, before disappearing.

Cranes are very unusual on the east coast north of Florida, so to have 7 in one week at one spot it remarkable. These 2 brought the year total for greenwich to 9, possibly a record. Very cool to see them there.

One last thing- did you notice how I titled this post. "Today...". Not "In August...", or "Last year...", but today. That means that I am finally caught up on my blog posts. YES!!!

Eamon Corbett

Edit: I also had a pileated woodpecker flyby- my first outside of Florida.