Monday, April 30, 2012

Whiting WMA 4/30--Eastern Kingbird

I've been exploring farther and farther in to the WMA and discovered that often I'm not technically in the WMA but have crossed over to the Crossley Preserve, which once was a clay mining site, not used since the early 20th century. The boundaries are indistinct. The preserve is huge: on Saturday, Shari & I were exploring another part of it two miles from where I ended up this morning.  Today, I went looking for a pond I saw on the Google map. It was off a road that was off a road that I've only walked on a few times. Past the dumped rugs and children's basket ball set, past the broken sink and toilet seat, past the ineffectual "No Dumping" sign, I found a huge pond hidden away. It could be another old clay pit, or it could be the result of a beaver dam, or it could be naturally occurring, I have no way of knowing. Beautiful spot, I should bring a camera. I was thinking it might be good in winter for ducks, or very early in the morning for warblers, but then it seemed pretty empty. Until I saw movement to my right and spotted a big black & white bird perched on a dead limb. Immediately I knew it was a flycatcher and it was too big to be a phoebe and it wasn't pumping its tail either. It hawked a bug, I saw the white border on its tail and knew I had my first Eastern Kingbird of the year.

I got a late start today, most birds had already done their morning work, so aside from the kingbird, nothing new or of note. I'll sum up the month in the next post.
16 species
Mallard  6
Mourning Dove  7
Eastern Kingbird  1    Pond on Crossley Preserve
Blue Jay  3
Fish Crow  1
Tree Swallow  6    Pair has taken over Wood Duck box.
Carolina Chickadee  8
Tufted Titmouse  10
Eastern Bluebird  3
American Robin  12
Eastern Towhee  15
Chipping Sparrow  24
Northern Cardinal  5
Common Grackle  4
House Finch  3
American Goldfinch  3

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