Hi all, It was the last class of SFO and we spent time in Arnot Forest.
I think this is one of the best trip I ever had in Arnot. Now we can predict almost where what residents could be seen. Almost all the birds we saw we got fantastic views of these birds except for CANADA WARBLERS and LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSHES. We missed the cuckoos. We ended up seeing 63 species. First three hours we spent just at the beginning of the Arnot road. Halfway up the road there is large tree across the road and even a Hummer cant negotiate it. So we walked three and half miles to reach to the top of the hill. Highlights are: 14 Species of Warblers Chestnut-sided (many and some great looks trough scopes and binoculars) Blackburnians (numerous and numerous views, we almost got tired of seeing them at a later stage) Redstarts (many, one made us spend almost half an hour to locate him) Common Yellowthroat (many and they seemed to be in wooded areas) Ovenbird (many heard, some got some glimpses of a bird) Black-throated Green (many but one gave a fantastic views) BAY-BREASTED (one breeding plumaged adult with a stunning view for some of us) Magnolia (mostly heard and one seen) Prairie Warblers (a few, but one female landed for us on a bare tree and got good looks at it) Black-throated Blue (many, but one gave us grand views) Canada Warblers (many only heard with couple of glimpses) Louisiana Waterthrush (heard only) Yellow Warblers Yellow-rumped Warblers (I also heard a Black and white warbler and saw a WILSON's Warbler which none of the others in the group could not see) Red-eyed Vireo Blue-headed Vireo Yellow-throated Vireo Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (numerous, we go tired of seeing them too, at one point there were four males chasing something together, may be a female, we also saw two females carrying nesting material and one nest location). After coming home one is singing in my yard. Scarlet Tanager (many one gave us most fantastic views, showing up, down and sides of his and we admired that) Ravens ( two of them put up a bit of a show for us) Indigo Buntings (several gave us glimpses too good looks) Orioles (sang their hearts out) Bobolinks Bluebirds Savannah Sparrow Field sparrow White-throated and White Crowned Sparrows Hermit Thrush Wood Thrush Veery And any other usual woodpeckers and local year round residents. In spite of wind and cool temperatures it was a wonderful day. Many of us missed the overnight Arnot trip when we used to get to go out and listen to dawn chorus at 4.00 am! Also lesson for the day was if you are patient and wait at a place birds come to you! Cheers Meena PS: Yesterday evening when I came home I heard Yellow-rumped in my spruces. They stayed and sang till late evening. Today morning they were still in the same tree and singing. So they stayed overnight at my place! After I came back from Arnot I heard them again. But later I spent an hour and half trying to photograph a beautiful Cecropia Moth and I do no seem to recall hearing them, but may be I was way too engrossed with the Cecropia! -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
