Whiting WMA 4/29--House Wren

House Wren

There's a saying about baseball (& oh these empty nights) that in any game you watch you will see something, some play, some sequence of events, that you've never seen before and I think that for the most part that applies to birding too; it's just not as apparent as it is in the structure of a game.

Today's loop through the WMA started out well almost immediately when I heard a bird not far from the house that I couldn't quite place. I stood in one spot long enough to finally see the bird, a House Wren, fly in and sing it's rapid song. I'm more used to hearing them scold me from thickets and tangles than I am hearing them sing, and while it certainly isn't a rare bird, it did feel good to finally hear and see one.

I walked around a few of the big empty square fields that have been cut into the woods of WMA which are perfect for edge birding. The local bluebird society has put up well over 20 boxes in these various fields and the bluebirds were using them today. But it wasn't until I got to the big pond, about 3/4 of the way around that I saw the unique event. Sometimes that pond, particularly in the winter, has a number of ducks on it, but today there was only a pair of Mallards. The ducks were agitated and started flying around; I saw an Osprey fly over the pond but normally that wouldn't upset ducks. Osprey are relatively uncommon over that pond, but I have seen them there. I saw a woman heading my way, so I walked around the bend of the path to keep our distance. She asked me if I had seen the bluebirds; I answered in the affirmative. Then, just as I was about to walk off she said, "Excuse me, is that a Bald Eagle in the lake?" I said I'd just seen an Osprey, but I came back, stood about 6 feet away and sure enough, an eagle had just flow in and landed atop a dead tree, which would explain the ducks' behavior. An Osprey won't eat a duck; an eagle might.

When I walked up the hill to take better photos of the eagle, I saw, in the pond, sitting on a stump, the Osprey. And there was the special event: I have seen eagles at the pond (I once even flushed a pair of them that were behind some brush which scared the hell out of me) and I have, as I said, on occasion seen Osprey, but I have never, at the same time simultaneously seen both birds there.

With things the way they are, you take your thrills where you find them.

29 species

Mallard  2    Pond

Mourning Dove  6

Osprey  1

Bald Eagle  1    

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1    Heard

Blue Jay  3

American Crow  2

Fish Crow  2

Carolina Chickadee  2    Heard

Tufted Titmouse  1    Heard

Tree Swallow  7    open fields

White-breasted Nuthatch  2    Heard

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  4

House Wren  1    Singing

Carolina Wren  1    Heard

Eastern Bluebird  5    Open fields

American Robin  4

House Finch  5

American Goldfinch  1    Heard

Chipping Sparrow  15

White-throated Sparrow  1    Heard

Song Sparrow  1    Heard

Eastern Towhee  12

Brown-headed Cowbird  3    open field

Ovenbird  10    Heard

Common Yellowthroat  2    Heard

Palm Warbler  1

Pine Warbler  1    Heard

Northern Cardinal  2    Heard