Magee Marsh Boardwalk 5/16--Sora

On Thursday it was hot. We returned to the boardwalk. I was really starting to develop a love/hate relationship with the walkway. Loved the birds, hated trudging behind other people.

Another cryptically colored bird found along the boardwalk was a Whip-poor-will. Like the Common Nighthawk, it blends in nicely with its surroundings and unless physically disturbed, will stay in one place, like the proverbial bump on a log, all day until dusk, when it will party all night. In fact, this Whip-poor-will really did look like a bump on a log.

Still another bird more often heard than seen was found picking its way along the east end of the boardwalk--a Sora. This rail has a whinnying cry and usually skulks in thick reeds, though Shari and I once had one walk along with us on the edge of a marsh in Canada. Still, it is unusual to see on this well:

45 species again on the boardwalk--that number seems pretty easy to make. That's a lot of birds in a one mile stretch.  Only one redstart today--a boatload for two days, then they're gone. That's migration.
Canada Goose  16
Sora  1
Rock Pigeon  1
Mourning Dove  5
Eastern Whip-poor-will  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1    Heard
Downy Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker  1    Heard
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1    Heard
Eastern Phoebe  1
Great Crested Flycatcher  1    Heard
Warbling Vireo  4
Red-eyed Vireo  2
Tree Swallow  25
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1    Heard
House Wren  4
Carolina Wren  1    Heard
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
Veery  1
American Robin  1
Gray Catbird  5
Northern Waterthrush  1
Black-and-white Warbler  3
Prothonotary Warbler  1    Heard
Nashville Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  1    Heard
American Redstart  1
Northern Parula  1
Bay-breasted Warbler  1
Blackburnian Warbler  1
Yellow Warbler  5
Chestnut-sided Warbler  3
Blackpoll Warbler  3
Palm Warbler  2
Yellow-rumped Warbler  10
Song Sparrow  1
Lincoln's Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  2
Scarlet Tanager  1
Northern Cardinal  2
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Common Grackle  10
Brown-headed Cowbird  1
Baltimore Oriole  8
American Goldfinch  2