Winding Hills County Park 5/6--Eastern Wood-Pewee

This morning I got up early and walked around what I'm calling Pleasure Grounds Park in Montgomery, NY. Our hostess didn't know what the park's official name is, on Google Maps the area isn't named, and the only evidence I have for the name is an historic plaque that says the area was once called Pleasure Grounds because there were horse races, picnics, and boy scout gatherings there.

I was hoping for warblers. I've been hoping for warblers all month and last month too. I only found Yellow-rumped Warblers.  However, I did see a beauty of a Cooper's Hawk fly into a tree and observed it preen itself for quite a while, watched a drake Mallard chase a hen, forcing her to abandon here 12 ducklings and I tried to not to make a moral judgement about the situation, heard a Black-capped Chickadee for the first time in a couple of months, and generally found enough birds to make the walk worthwhile.

Late in the morning Shari, our friend and I walked around another park in the area that does have an official name: Winding Hills County Park. While we saw or heard few birds there, the few that were in evidence included a Wild Turkey (always fun to see, even if they're becoming routine at home) and heard, for the first time this year, the high whistle of an Eastern Wood-Pewee.

For the weekend I had 36 species of birds and 2 FOY and today's list looks like this:

Mute Swan	WH
Mallard	PGP
Wild Turkey	WH
Great Blue Heron	WH
Cooper's Hawk	PGP
Spotted Sandpiper	PGP
Chimney Swift	PGP
Red-bellied Woodpecker	PGP
Northern Flicker	PGP
Eastern Wood-Pewee	WH
Eastern Phoebe	PGP
Blue Jay	PGP
American Crow	PGP
Fish Crow	PGP
Black-capped Chickadee	PGP
Tufted Titmouse	PGP
White-breasted Nuthatch	PGP
American Robin	PGP
Gray Catbird	PGP
European Starling	PGP
Yellow-rumped Warbler	PGP
Northern Cardinal	PGP
House Sparrow	PGP