Double Trouble SP 5/2--Northern Parula

Always a day late. I have been gravitating to Double Trouble of late because the habitat is good for warblers (and its close). Yesterday, when I was at Colliers Mills, I should have been there, because lots of warblers were reported, despite the foggy conditions. That's the story of my birding life--wherever I am, I always feel like I should be somewhere else.

So I was up early, again, this morning, and at the park before 7. Immediately, I heard Wood Thrush. Instead of going my usual route, which is to walk up the trails to the reservoir, I instead walked through the village to the Cedar Creek bridge, because a photographer yesterday told me he'd had lots of birds along that way recently. I had lots of birds too, but none of them were new, save for a single Northern Parula I found on the beach of the creek, below the bridge. I had lots of Prairie Warblers and Ovenbirds, I heard, again, a Hooded Warbler, but the influx of warblers from yesterday apparently outfluxed last night. Or, another explanation could be that I didn't go to the secret warbler spot that I don't know about despite having visited the park more than 100 times. Seems like a reasonable hypothesis.

Aside from seeing the parula, the other bird that made me happy was this Great Crested Flycatcher. I've heard them the last few days, but I haven't been able to snag a look at one until this morning. Unless it is a nocturnal bird, like an owl or nightjar, I don't really feel a bird is officially on the list until I see it.  So for the last few days, GCFL has been carried on the list in my mind as a technicality. Now it is truly checked off.

Even in this mediocre picture, where it is sitting high up in a tall tree, you can see what a great looking bird it is and one you'd prefer to see instead of hearing its song, which sounds like someone has opened the emergency door in an office building: Weep weep weep weep.

25 species
Double-crested Cormorant 1 Canoe Pond
Turkey Vulture 1
Bald Eagle 1 On power line tower
Mourning Dove 1 Heard
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Nesting
Eastern Phoebe 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1 Sawmill
Blue Jay 2 Heard
Fish Crow 2
Carolina Chickadee 1 Heard
Tufted Titmouse 1 Heard
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 5 Heard
Wood Thrush 2 Heard
American Robin 3
Gray Catbird 10
Ovenbird 20
Black-and-white Warbler 2
Common Yellowthroat 4 Heard
Hooded Warbler 1 Heard
Northern Parula 1
Prairie Warbler 15
Chipping Sparrow 2
Eastern Towhee 10 Heard
Northern Cardinal 4
Red-winged Blackbird 5