I struck out again yesterday morning on Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, which I still
expect to find in the red maple bog beside Walding Lane, as in former years.
Will try another day (though the exuberance of the poison sumac in there is
really a caution!)
Early this morning I watched Baltimore Orioles delivering food to a nest in a
giant sugar maple at the edge of a swamp. Swamp Sparrows, Yellow Warblers,
Great Crested Flycatchers and an Eastern Kingbird were also catching food and
carrying it instead of eating it. The temperature was 45 degrees F!
Around noon I found a Louisiana Waterthrush feeding a Cowbird fledgling in the
gorge at the north end of Comfort Road, a location which is just inside the
Town of Danby.
Then I went up into the white spruce grove at the top of Bald Hill Road, behind
the new yellow gate with the red STOP sign attached. Walking in, I flushed a
Ruffed Grouse with a brood of young, still tiny but old enough to fly a few
yards. At the same moment a heard a Mourning Warbler singing (some folks will
remember that this has been a Mourning Warbler spot for a number of years now).
I soon got a nice close-up view of this singer, and at the same time another
Mourning Warbler began singing from across the road.
As reported in past years, this spot is just silly with Hooded Warblers, but
there are also lots of other birds (Black-throated Blues, for instance). At one
point I was startled to see two Blue Jays closely chasing a red squirrel in a
spiraling retreat down the trunk of a tall spindly spruce. Nest at the top! I
love to bird these local places in the breeding season!
-Geo
Sent from my iPhone
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