It was chilly today in the park, in fact, by the lake, it was down right cold. I varied my usual route quite a bit, starting off in the Vale (which if I hit it, I usually hit last) where I found a Blue-headed Vireo on one set of stairs and my FOY Wood Thrush on another. A swing by the compost heap makes me suspect its glory days are past--only a Brown Creeper on the trees near the fence.
I walked by the Boathouse just to see if the coot was still there (it was) then up to the platform overlooking the Lullwater Cove. Yellow-rumps were everywhere, a lot of catbirds, and I found a Northern Waterthrush and a couple of Common Yellowthroats. I was walking along the north side of the Lullwater and just as I saw a Green Heron fly off into a tree, my first tweet of the day came in--Rob B had a Hooded Warbler by West Island. I wasn't that far away so I walked over there to find Rob playing Hooded Warbler songs on his phone. I'm not familiar with that bird's songs so Rob played it a couple of times and then soon we heard the bird itself. I never did see it and if it had been a life bird I'd have been disappointed, but hearing counts. There were Yellow Warblers and yellowthroats as well in the shrubs on the island and then a very nice looking Blackpoll Warbler made its appearance. As Rob pointed out, they're a hell of a lot easier to identify in the spring than in the fall. We walked over to the peninsula picking up sparrows and warblers as well as a Great Blue Heron, Great Egret and another Green Heron. Plus there were scads of Barn Swallows and Chimney Swifts.
Our next survey was of Lookout Hill which had a fair amount of interesting birds. At the top of the hill, at the top of just about the tallest tree on the top of the hill, we saw a bird flitting around and after watching it for quite the while finally determined that it was a Warbling Vireo. Then we heard it sing it knew we were right. Down by the butterfly meadow there was a Northern Parula and a Prairie Warbler and Rob saw a hummingbird. We were waiting for it to reappear when another tweet came in--Peter had a Yellow-throated Vireo down on Center Drive. We weren't that far away and probably got there in under 5 minutes but the only vireo to be found was other warbling one. It would have been nice to end the day with that bird but we couldn't find it and after looking for a while I realized I was cold, hungry and had told Shari I would be home soon about an hour earlier.
I ended the day (with many thanks to Rob) with 60 species, not bad for what seemed like an overcast day in March.
Canada Goose 20
Mute Swan 3
Mallard 15
Ruddy Duck 9
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Great Blue Heron 1 Lake
Great Egret 1 Duck Island
Green Heron 2 Lullwater and Peninsula
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1 Lullwater Cove
Red-tailed Hawk 4
American Coot 1 Boathouse Pond
Laughing Gull 1
Herring Gull 10
Rock Pigeon 5
Mourning Dove 4
Chimney Swift 15
Red-bellied Woodpecker 6
Downy Woodpecker 1 Lookout Hill
Blue-headed Vireo 1 Vale
Warbling Vireo 2 Lookout Hill & Center Drive
Blue Jay 3
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 5
Tree Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 35
Black-capped Chickadee 1 Lookout Hill
Tufted Titmouse 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1 Peninsula
White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Lookout Hill
Brown Creeper 1 Near compost pile
Carolina Wren 1 Wellhouse Drive
House Wren 1 Lookout Hill
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 Lullwater Cove
Wood Thrush 1 Vale
American Robin 100
Gray Catbird 8
European Starling 25
Northern Parula 1 Lookout Hill Butterfly Garden
Yellow Warbler 10
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1 Peninsula
Yellow-rumped Warbler 60
Pine Warbler 1 Lookout Hill
Prairie Warbler 1 Lookout Hill Butterfly Garden
Palm Warbler 1 Peninsula
Blackpoll Warbler 1 West Island
Black-and-white Warbler 3
Northern Waterthrush 1 Lullwater Cove
Common Yellowthroat 4
Hooded Warbler 1 Heard near West Island
Chipping Sparrow 2
Savannah Sparrow 2 Peninsula
Song Sparrow 3
White-throated Sparrow 10
Northern Cardinal 10
Red-winged Blackbird 25
Common Grackle 10
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
Baltimore Oriole 2 Lookout Hill
American Goldfinch 3
House Sparrow 20
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