Great Birdwalk with Haynes!!

Today's birding group

It was rather chilly, windy and overcast today but when the sun came out it was lovely and the main thing is that we saw some really great birds and had a great walk around the park!

We started in the lower gardens where we heard and saw several yellow warblers. Some of us saw the Northern Parula which has a buzzy call and is just totally beautiful. We spotted another one later in the woods near the parking lot.

The tree swallows were everywhere and we had sightings of cardinals, catbirds, mourning doves, song sparrows, robins, cowbirds and jays.'

Baltimore Oriole

As they were pruning a large tree in the upper gardens and making lots of noise, we headed down to the soccer fields where we saw several very colorful yellow rump warblers and a ruby crowned kinglet as well as a beautiful savannah sparrow. The pond was quiet today.

Down by the river we could hear a lot of singing and it turned out that several warbling vireos had blown in overnight! They were singing like crazy along with a baltimore oriole who was hanging out in the same tree. A phoebe was doing nest duty already while the mate was nearby and Haynes spotted some chimney swifts flying overhead.

We then walked up through Woodcock meadow and down the path that leads by the JCC through the woods lured by the sound of the pine warbler. We cut through to the back of the JCC where it was sunny and warm and we finally got to see the pine warbler. We also saw a black and white warbler and heard its buzzy call. They had a bird feeder set up and we also saw nuthatches and titmice and a cute little chipping sparrow.

Chipping Sparrow

Going through the woods to the parking lot we had another great viewing of some extremely bright yellow rumped warblers and caught a very brief glimpse of the red bellied woodpecker. Back at the parking lot everyone left, but Haynes and I felt compelled to check out the upper gardens now that the tree pruning was done.

Still no sign of the bluebirds - how sad… but lots of yellow rumps here as well and Haynes saw a kestrel flying overhead which was most exciting. Don't see that every day at Nahanton! A red tailed was soaring as well. Cormorant flew overhead as well.

The only thing I saw that the group didn't get to see were some palm warblers down in the lower gardens.