Colliers Mills 2/12--Sharp-shinned Hawk

Colliers Mills WMA, along Success Road

I had to call an audible today for the site of my vigorous walk. I had intended to walk around Horicon Lake but when I got there the road was blocked by stanchions. The last time I ventured past the stanchions there, after Sandy, I was shooed off by the Lakehurst Police. Besides, the lake, which I was hoping would have some open water, was completely frozen and snow-covered. All the water around here is frozen, making it very difficult to find anything more interesting than little gray or brown birds. I decided to turn around and go over to Colliers Mills, where I hadn't been yet this year. Maybe some of the water there was open.

The lake was frozen and Turnmill Pond (which looks bigger than the lake) was also frozen solid, but the water after the spillway between the two bodies of water was open and it was there that I found my some waterfowl, 5 Ring-necked Ducks.

I walked around to the area where some abandoned buildings are just barely standing. A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker introduced itself as I entered the grove.  Birds were flying around; in and under one cedar I found, robins, starling, bluebirds, a cardinal, and yellow-rump, while a couple of mockingbirds chased each other around. Nothing new or startling, but the combination of vivid bluebirds, robins, and the cardinal against the green cedar in the white surround was quite beautiful. My camera could not do it justice, so I didn't bother getting my hands cold to try.

I walked along Success Road for a while, with little success, though I did find, moving at speed, my FOY Sharp-shinned Hawk flying toward the headquarters area. Flap-flap-flap-flap-flap, glide. That's the pattern of a sharpie.

There were a few areas where I heard gunshots, so naturally I avoided them (small-game season continues, though duck and deer season over) and then I got a call from Shari that the cat was having a diabetic fit. so I had to cut my walk short after only about an hour. (She's fine now, after getting a big dose of feline snicker bar gel.) So I only had 16 species for the walk.

Canada Goose  50    farm field on Colliers Mills Rd
Ring-necked Duck  5    
Turkey Vulture  3
Sharp-shinned Hawk  1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  1    By decrepit buildings.
Carolina Chickadee  1    Heard
Tufted Titmouse  1    Heard
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
Carolina Wren  1
Eastern Bluebird  5
American Robin  10
Northern Mockingbird  3
European Starling  10
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Dark-eyed Junco  3
Northern Cardinal  1