Yellow Rumps Have Arrived!

It was unusually cold this morning. 38 degrees as I headed over to the park at about 7:45. I could see that Haynes had arrived and we headed up to the upper gardens where we also ran into Jane and later, Ian in Woodcock meadow.

The yellow-rumped warblers or as Haynes calls them the Myrtle warblers were there and the more we looked the more we saw. Also had some nice sightings of swamp sparrows. Jane and I were educated on the difference between the eastern and western palm warbler as there were two of them side by side on a garden fence.

The sparrows were very interested of course in all the garden offerings but found a patch of grasses going to seed in the refuse pile and also a pile of brush to the side of the path. We saw song sparrows as well as the white throated sparrows. Jane spotted a group of 5 or 6 house finches on top of a tree. Also saw many of the regulars; mockingbirds, cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, goldfinches, robins, titmice and a juvenile red-tailed hawk, etc.

Mallards very busy down by the pond where again we saw an Eastern Phoebe hanging out. Everywhere we went - from the upper and lower gardens, to the pond, to the river, to the meadow we saw the yellow-rumps everywhere. Wonder how long we'll have the pleasure of seeing them....