Sunday, March 6, 2011

Spring is Coming!

It was over 50 degrees when I got to the park at 7:30 a.m.! After the winter we've been having this is a very welcome relief.

Spent a week in Florida admiring herons, egrets, ibis, wood storks, pelicans (white and brown), a pileated woodpecker, gnatcatchers, palm warblers, black & whites, yellow rumps, a yellow throat, kinglets, vireos as well as lizards and iguanas. Now back to real life.

There was a veritable chorus of song sparrows in the lower gardens today. They sound like they are ready for some action! They also didn't seem to mind my presence and let me get pretty close.

Otherwise, most of the activity seemed to be down by the river. I was afraid I may have missed them - but now that the river is melting, there they were - my friends the hooded mergansers. Today, it was a couple. I also saw in the distance some other, very interesting looking ducks. They had areas of dark and white with bright orange beaks, but just a little too far away to positively identify. I'm guessing they were male common mergansers, but don't know for sure.

Lots of chickadees, some robins, bluejays, blackbirds, the sound of a red belly purr, crows, the red tail hawk they were upset about, a downy woodpecker, nuthatches and titmice.

The chipmunks looked so happy to be out of their winter dens. They were chasing each other up and down  fallen logs and through the leaves having a blast! Some of them were more intent on posing and having their picture taken like the one pictured to left.

No comments:

Post a Comment