Friday, October 14, 2011

Three Warblers and a Sparrow

I haven't posted in a while, but I have been birding a lot.

Today, Friday, I managed to squeeze in a few minutes while it wasn't raining and birded some fields along Town Lane. I was not disappointed. Almost as soon as I walked in a was greeted by a beautifully plumaged male Prairie Warbler. Right after that I saw a Nashville Warbler. But I was confounded by ticking that I heard. I knew it was a bird, but couldn't figure out where it was. Finally, I looked up high enough and was rewarded with an uncommon sparrow -- a Lincoln's Sparrow. It looks a bit like a Song Sparrow but has more delicate streaking and a striped bib with an orange background. What was especially nice was all three birds were very accommodating and let me watch them. Later I saw a Palm Warbler, too.

Last weekend, I had my first-of-season Winter Wren in a trail in the Stony Hill section. Also, at Quail Hill, there were Eastern Bluebirds, several Eastern Phoebes, and another small flycatcher. I think think it was A Willow Flycatcher because it seemed to respond when I played the song/calls of a Willow Flycatcher on my phone.

On Friday I had birded some spots further West, and saw some nice birds including a Blackburnian Warbler, Peregrine Falcons, Merlins, and some White-crowned Sparrows.
But the best moment was when I saw female Black-throated Blue Warbler. I had seen her in some bushes; she flew into a small tree nearby, at which point a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker flew out of the tree. When I looked closely, I saw that she was drinking sap out of the wells that had been made by the sapsucker. That was kind of cool.


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