Prospect Park 10/20

Osage Orange

I'm trying to cram in as many trips to Prospect Park as I can before we move permanently down to Whiting. The WMA behind the house there is great, but it doesn't have the diversity of habitat that there is in the park and thus, not the diversity of birds either. I'm going to miss being able to find 30 or 40 species in a morning.

After the heavy rains of yesterday the winds (southerly) blew in, which kept bird numbers down though there were plenty of distracting leaf birds both in the air and flapping in the trees. Still, there were some interesting finds: I spotted a Spotted Sandpiper bopping along the edge of Duck Island, near the huge piece of machinery used for skimming the leaves and muck off the surface of the lake; a Hermit Thrush posed on a log in the Lower Pool; a pair of Wood Ducks were out in the open on the Upper Pool; and once I attached myself to one of the park's bird magnets (Rob B) things really started to pick up with sparrows, warblers and a few feisty phoebes.

37 species wandering around the park starting at the 15th Street entrance and exiting at Grand Army Plaza with a trip to the lake in between.
Canada Goose  50
Mute Swan  10
Wood Duck  2    Upper Pool
Mallard  55
Northern Shoveler  20
Ruddy Duck  15
Double-crested Cormorant  1 Three Sisters
American Coot  7
Spotted Sandpiper  1    Duck Island
Rock Pigeon  5
Mourning Dove  4
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  2
Eastern Phoebe  3
Blue Jay  10
Black-capped Chickadee  2
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  4
Hermit Thrush  1    Lower Pool
American Robin  17
Gray Catbird  1
Northern Mockingbird  2
European Starling  10
Nashville Warbler  1    Near G.A.P. entrance
Northern Parula  1    Vale
Blackpoll Warbler  1    Sparrow Bowl
Palm Warbler  4
Pine Warbler  1    Sparrow Bowl
Yellow-rumped Warbler  8
Black-throated Green Warbler  1    Sparrow Bowl
Savannah Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  1
Swamp Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  6
Northern Cardinal  3
House Sparrow  35