Double Trouble SP 5/12--Caspian Tern, Magnolia Warbler

Caspian Tern

It's always nice when an unusual bird sticks around long enough for you to get a chance to find it. Caspian Tern is by no means rare, but they are unusual inland around here and since I have little ambition to go to the shore during this endless stretch of cold windy weather, I was hoping that the tern (or terns) reported the last couple of days at Oar Pond at Double Trouble would still be there this morning.

Bingo. I didn't have to look long. One, as Pete use to intone, "World's Largest Tern" was flying around the big reservoir.  I assume the water is full of pickerel and that the tern is feeding on them.

I didn't do very well on the warbler front--toward the end of the my walk I realized I had neither seen nor heard Black-and-white or Yellow, nor the resident Hooded, but, on a whim I walked down the dead end Purple Trail which seemed at first just as dead as everywhere else. Then I flushed a Wood Duck which amused me and made the walk "worth it." On the way back I heard warblers chipping. To me, almost all chip notes sound alike, so it is usually a question of habitat--what would be chipping here? In that area, with an old canal next to the brambly trail, I assumed more Common Yellowthroats.  But pishing brought out a surprise, a male Magnolia Warbler. Sure enough, it chipped, and sounded just like the two yellowthroats nearby.

As I type this, my phone is pinging with more Frost Advisories for all over the state. Winter, it seems, will never end. And then in June, everyone will say--from 6 feet away--"We didn't have a spring, we went from winter directly into summer." Bet on it.

33 species

Canada Goose  13    4 on Oar, rest in back Bogs

Wood Duck  1    

Mallard  1

Laughing Gull  6

Caspian Tern  1    

Great Egret  1

Turkey Vulture  2

Osprey  1    Flyover back Bogs

Eastern Phoebe  4    at both bridges over creek

Great Crested Flycatcher  1    Heard

Eastern Kingbird  2

White-eyed Vireo  2    Heard

Blue Jay  1

Fish Crow  3

Carolina Chickadee  1    Heard

Tufted Titmouse  1    Heard

Northern Rough-winged Swallow  3

Tree Swallow  15

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1

Carolina Wren  2    Heard

Gray Catbird  30

Wood Thrush  1    Heard

American Robin  10

American Goldfinch  2    Heard

Chipping Sparrow  5

Song Sparrow  3

Eastern Towhee  10

Red-winged Blackbird  2

Ovenbird  25    Heard

Common Yellowthroat  15

Magnolia Warbler  1

Pine Warbler  1    Heard

Prairie Warbler  7