I led the bird club trip of 8 people this morning to Lindsay Parsons. It started out clear but muggy, but we were rained on towards the end. Nevertheless we had a good day.
From the parking lot we had Barn and Tree Swallows, two Kingbirds, a Chestnut-sided Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Mourning Dove, a Flicker, a Black-throated Blue Warbler, Cardinal, Goldfinch, Cowbird and Song Sparrow.
We took the blue trail and first stopped at the little bridge just down from the kiosk. We heard and saw little from there, but as we were about to move on, a Woodcock flushed from right under our noses.
Further on, we stopped just after where the path first goes into the meadow. Vigorous chipping from the trees led us to two Field Sparrows. The one that was chipping had a live green caterpillar in its bill. The other was flitting about in the same vicinity. We wondered if this was juvenile begging behavior, but that didn't seem to fit exactly. At one point a Yellow Warbler joined them and seemed to eye the caterpillar before deciding not to attempt to steal it. After a few minutes, the sparrow gobbled the morsel down.
We had heard a Prairie warbler from here, and were able to pick it up with the scope in some bushes. A Yellow-throated Vireo was singing from across the field. Suan's "mystery chipper" was heard coming from the trees so we decided to solve the mystery. This bird sounded like a bit like a Junco, but also like a Field Sparrow with an irregular song. It was clearly coming from high in the tree, which seemed less likely of the sparrow. After a traipse through the wet vegetation, we finally picked it up in the scope to find it was indeed the Field Sparrow.
We visited the ponds next, where we found at least twenty Wood Ducks, most of which decided we were too close and flew off. In the distance we found a female leading a group of about six chicks. A female Kingfisher was also visible, as were about ten Canada Geese.
Back to the meadows. We had been hearing faint Indigo Bunting song, and when we moved to the next field Bob found it perched high on the dead tree at the end of the trail. The song seemed strangely feeble and easily drowned out by the other birds. Curiously, on the return, the bird was in the same spot, but singing much more strongly.
Beyond the meadow, the trail goes between low bushes before joining the woods. We first found a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, got good looks at a Chestnut-sided Warbler, and then found a Blue-winged Warbler and a Black-and-white. Into the woods, we heard a singing Scarlet Tanager, but did not get a visual. Also heard was an Ovenbird.
At the bottom of the trail just before crossing the railroad tracks, were two Eastern Phoebes over the creek.
On the other side it started to rain so we paused until it let up. We then took the right branch of the loop, and soon heard an atypical song that turned out to be a Magnolia. From there we also heard a Hooded Warbler and another Black-and-white.
As we went round the loop, the rain started in earnest, so we hurried along. By the time we were back to the meadows, it had eased somewhat. Here we heard a Veery singing from the woods.
Returning to the cars, the only item of note were eight Double-crested Cormorants circling over, possibly going to the large pond there.
Finally, we decided to stop at the Fire house to check out the drowned trees there. We found four Great-blue Heron nests, two of which contained quite large chicks that were visible. Also seen there were four Green Herons and another Kingfisher. A single female Wood Duck here was being followed by no fewer than twenty chicks.
Of course we had some of the other usual suspects along the way. Below is the ebird list.
Lindsay-Parsons Biodiversity Preserve, Tompkins, US-NY Jun 2, 2013 7:50 AM - 11:20 AM Protocol: Traveling 2.0 mile(s) Comments: Submitted from BirdLog NA for Android v1.7 47 species Canada Goose 40 Wood Duck 20 Double-crested Cormorant 8 Great Blue Heron 1 American Woodcock 1 Mourning Dove X Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2 Belted Kingfisher 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 2 Downy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 4 Eastern Phoebe 2 Eastern Kingbird 2 Yellow-throated Vireo 1 Red-eyed Vireo 4 Blue Jay X American Crow X Tree Swallow X Barn Swallow X Black-capped Chickadee 1 Carolina Wren 1 Veery 2 Wood Thrush 1 American Robin X Gray Catbird X European Starling X Ovenbird 2 Blue-winged Warbler 2 Black-and-white Warbler 2 Common Yellowthroat X Hooded Warbler 1 Magnolia Warbler 1 Yellow Warbler 4 Chestnut-sided Warbler 2 Black-throated Blue Warbler 2 Prairie Warbler 5 Eastern Towhee X Field Sparrow X Song Sparrow X Scarlet Tanager 1 Northern Cardinal X Indigo Bunting 2 Red-winged Blackbird X Common Grackle X Brown-headed Cowbird X Baltimore Oriole 1 American Goldfinch X -- Paul Anderson, VP of Engineering, GrammaTech, Inc. 531 Esty St., Ithaca, NY 14850 Tel: +1 607 273-7340 x118; http://www.grammatech.com -- 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/ --
