Birds of Jackson 5/5--Red-eyed Vireo, Black-throated Green Warbler

House Wren, FREC

The trees are leafing out, the birds are getting harder to see and well nigh impossible to photograph. Add to that my crack-brained theory that the new leaves actually muffle sound, making the birds harder to  hear (never did get that pewee today) and you have a lot of birding frustration.

Scarlet Tanager, FREC

Shari and I went on the 4th of Mike's Birds of Jackson trips today. This is the series where we start in March and through the late winter and early spring watch the birds change at a set sequence of locations: FREC, Butterfly Bogs, Lake Enno, Jackson Mills Pond, Prospertown Lake, and finally, Colliers Mills. Most of the birding action took place at FREC (Forest Resource Education Center) today, not surprisingly since migrating birds are more active in the morning. It was there that I added to new birds to the year list and a few new birds to the county list. It was also there that I continually missed hearing the Eastern Pewee--people talking, the rustling leaves, the gap in my hearing...all contributing factors. I know there are a few birds I don't hear like Blackpoll Warbler and, unless they're right over my head, Cedar Waxwings. Today I discovered that I only hear half a chickadee's song. The Carolina Chickadee is always described as having a four note song but all I have ever heard is, at best, 2 1/2 notes--ffff fee bee. I never took the four note description seriously until Shari was asking me what song she was hearing in the distance. I listened, told I heard "fee bee"which meant chickadee and it took a long time for us to convince each other that we were hearing the same bird, only she was hearing more of it.

We spent the most time at FREC. Then it was quick sops at the next 4 places on the itinerary, the highlights being both species of orioles at Lake Enno and 3 Warbling Vireos there. Usually I have to wait for the parking lot of Colliers Mills to get Warbling Vireo (where they breed) as a county bird, so this was an "early" sighting by about an hour.

By the time we got to Colliers Mills it was midday so activity was quieting down but there was a Chestnut-sided Warbler there which everyone else got to see and which I missed behind those very annoying leaves. How I envied the new birder on our trip who got 13 life birds today--I need a passport to get more than a couple of lifers in one day and those birds tend to have very long names like Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl or Yellow-Olive Flycatcher. Instead, I'll be happy with the 2 FOY and 6 county birds collected during our peripatetic day.

Canada Goose  22

Wood Duck  1

Mallard  6

Double-crested Cormorant  1

Great Blue Heron  1

Great Egret  2

Black Vulture  2

Turkey Vulture  7

Red-tailed Hawk  2

Spotted Sandpiper  1

Mourning Dove  3

Red-bellied Woodpecker  2

Hairy Woodpecker  1

Eastern Phoebe  2

Great Crested Flycatcher  2

Eastern Kingbird  1

White-eyed Vireo  5

Warbling Vireo  5

Red-eyed Vireo  2

Blue Jay  2

Fish Crow  3

Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1

Tree Swallow  3

Carolina Chickadee  7

Tufted Titmouse  2

White-breasted Nuthatch  1

House Wren  1

Carolina Wren  2

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1

Eastern Bluebird  1

Wood Thrush  3

American Robin  3

Gray Catbird  10

Northern Mockingbird  1

Ovenbird  11

Black-and-white Warbler  7

Common Yellowthroat  6

Hooded Warbler  1

Northern Parula  1

Pine Warbler  3

Yellow-rumped Warbler  1

Prairie Warbler  6

Black-throated Green Warbler  2

Chipping Sparrow  8

Eastern Towhee  7

Scarlet Tanager  1

Northern Cardinal  1

Orchard Oriole  1

Baltimore Oriole  4

Red-winged Blackbird  12

House Finch  1