Reeves Bogs 4/28--Green Heron, Great Crested Flycatcher

Great Crested Flycatcher

I hadn't been to Reeves Bogs in more than a month. This morning, I felt up to the slogging through streams running over the dams from one bog to another and crossing the precarious bridges that go over the deeper breaches. I bookended my new year birds there--a Green Heron that flew out of the maple swamp as I started my walk a little after 7, and as was heading back to the car 3+ hours later, I heard a "weep, weep," which took a few moments to register as a Great Crested Flycatcher working the trees that have grown up around the foundation of the old packing house. The Green Heron gave a squawk as it came out of the swamp, flew partly over the bog and then made a U turn, but the flycatcher was fairly easy to track down and photograph. 

I ran into my informant as I often do there on Sundays, and we did a bit of botanizing, he showing me the difference between shadbush and chokeberry.  Shadbush is already fading--it is also known as serviceberry because when it blossomed, it was said, the ground had thawed enough to finally have funeral services that had been delayed all winter. Chokeberry is so named because of the astringent taste of its fruit. "It won't kill you," my informant told me, "But it's pretty bitter." 

I was also surprised to see that the geese already had goslings. It seems pretty early to me and while I've noticed pairs of geese in every pond and lake I've been too, I haven't noticed any geese on nests as I have the swans. Hard to believe that those cute little yellow fluff balls swimming after Mama will in no time grow up to be nuisance shit machines but that's the wonder of nature. 

Lots of singing birds today--Ovenbirds, Prairie Warblers, yellowthroats, Pine Warblers, Swamp Sparrows and of course, blackbirds. Pretty noisy wherever I went.

39 species
Canada Goose  12
Wood Duck  8
Mallard  5
Mourning Dove 4
Killdeer  1
Double-crested Cormorant  1     Milton’s Reservoir
Green Heron  1     
Great Blue Heron  3
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  1     Bear Hole
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  5
Great Crested Flycatcher  1
Eastern Kingbird  1
Blue Jay  4
Fish Crow  2
Carolina Chickadee  1
Tufted Titmouse  1
Tree Swallow  25
Barn Swallow  1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  2
Gray Catbird  1
Eastern Bluebird  1
American Robin  2
American Goldfinch  2
Chipping Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  2
Swamp Sparrow  4
Eastern Towhee  1
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Brown-headed Cowbird  2
Common Grackle  4
Ovenbird  4
Black-and-white Warbler  10
Common Yellowthroat  20
Palm Warbler  1
Pine Warbler  5
Yellow-rumped Warbler  9
Prairie Warbler  8