Oak Openings Preserve Metropark 5/12--GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER, Lark Sparrow, Purple Finch

Shari on the Wabash Cannonball Rail Trail that
runs through the park.
The train was named after the song
not vice versa. The train no longer exists
except as the mythical one in the song

Sunday was almost as cold as Saturday and much windier. We quickly gave up on the Metzger Marsh idea and headed west of Toledo to another Metropark called Oak Openings. Despite the oak trees, it had a lot of similarities  to the Pine Barrens--much of the park is comprised of sand dunes, a geological oddity in the Mid-west, especially so far from the lake, but I suppose that eons ago this area was underwater, just as the Pine Barrens were once the bottom of an ocean.

We got another lifer here and again, it was in a weird way. We were looking up into the high oak trees, hearing birds but not seeing many when a woman, also birding nearby, called out Blue-winged Warbler. Blue-winged Warbler is one of the 10 or so warblers who song I have mnemonic for--it's "Buzz Kill," and what I heard was three notes, but I'm certainly not the go to guy for warbler song, so I kind of accepted her i.d.

About an hour later we ran into her again at the visitor center. She apologized profusely for getting the i.d. wrong. It was a GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER we had all heard and she had the photo to back it up. Golden-wing and Blue-wing are closely related, in fact so closely that they often hybridize to the detriment of the Golden-wing population which is already under pressure from its more successful cousin, the Blue-wing. Still, I was right to be a little suspicious. I just wish I knew my warbler songs better and didn't have to rely on this kind of luck to get birds.

Oak Openings is well-known in the area for its breeding population of Lark Sparrows and it didn't take us long to find a couple of these handsome sparrows in a large field. Also, while at the visitor center I latched onto a few birders who were viewing a small flock of birds huddling against the cold up in a tree. Hard to say what they were at first--too big for sparrows, not particularly colorful, fairly big beaks, not female cowbirds. No way to get a decent picture of them, especially with the bough waving in the wind, but after much hemming and hawing and looking at field guides and comparing field marks, we all agreed that we'd come upon a small flock of female Purple Finches. It was more the angle of view than the birds themselves that was the problem--that and the stinking wind.

Even with the wind and not really knowing the hot spots in the park we managed 35 species including 4 Red-headed Woodpeckers. Never saw that many in one day. As we were exiting the park we spied a Wild Turkey on the side of the road. Just like home!
Wild Turkey  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Mourning Dove  1
Red-headed Woodpecker  4
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Downy Woodpecker  2
Eastern Phoebe  2
Eastern Kingbird  1
Blue Jay  3
American Crow  2
Black-capped Chickadee  3
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
Carolina Wren  1    Heard
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  4
Eastern Bluebird  6
Veery  1
Swainson's Thrush  1
Wood Thrush  1
American Robin  1
Gray Catbird  2
GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER  1    Heard 3 note song. 
Black-throated Green Warbler  1    Heard
Eastern Towhee  1    Heard
Chipping Sparrow  4
Field Sparrow  1    Heard
Lark Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  1
White-crowned Sparrow  3
Northern Cardinal  1
Indigo Bunting  1    Ranger station
Brown-headed Cowbird  4
Baltimore Oriole  2
Purple Finch  7    Clustered together in tree by visitor ctr
Pine Siskin  4    Feeders
American Goldfinch  4    Feeders