Thanks to all of you who sent guesses for my photo challenge. We got single votes for American Crow, Rusty Blackbird, Northern Cardinal, Blue Jays, Green Heron, and a few each for starlings and Brown-headed Cowbird. But I think that the birds in my photos this morning are COMMON GRACKLES, about to fledge from a nest along the parking area road by the Lab of Ornithology, with parents coming by occasionally to deliver food.
Later this morning, I went to the Bock-Harvey and Stevenson Forest Preserves in Enfield to make sure I’d know my way around easily for Sunday’s SBQ walks. Highlights include: * Two singing HOODED WARBLERS and one silent female at Bock-Harvey, plus one heard across the stream at Stevenson * A BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO singing percussive tripled coos near the entrance at Bock-Harvey, then another giving a long series of decelerating kerps and kewps, barely confirmed by sight in the canopy maybe 90 feet off the ground in the grand old-growth woods * Several unseen BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLERS and three BLACKBURNIAN WARBLERS at Stevenson – Blackburnians also extremely high in old-growth (hemlocks maybe 100 feet tall), barely visible here, but much more obliging next to parking area Mark Chao -- 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/ --