Bird Walk with Haynes Miller

At 8:00, it was 50 degrees and so foggy at first that you couldn't see a few feet in front of you. Eventually however, the fog cleared and towards the end, the sun even came out. At least it wasn't raining like the last few years!

We started down by the river, where it was relatively quiet. The pond turned out to have some of our best birds: at least one solitary sandpiper, an ovenbird!, and a ruby crowned kinglet.

In the upper gardens, some fall sparrows had shown up including swamp and savannah sparrows. On our second pass in the upper gardens we ended up seeing the indigo bunting which I thought I had seen when we were down in the lower gardens, but then thought I must have misidentified.

Here's is Haynes' complete list:

Marigolds

Canada Goose  X
Solitary Sandpiper  2
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  1
Mourning Dove  4
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Downy Woodpecker  3
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)  4
Eastern Phoebe  2
Blue Jay  8
American Crow  1
Black-capped Chickadee  8
Tufted Titmouse  4
White-breasted Nuthatch  4
House Wren  2
Carolina Wren  1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1     pond
American Robin  50
Gray Catbird  6
Ovenbird  1     mud at pond
Blackpoll Warbler  1
Eastern Towhee  1
Chipping Sparrow  8
Savannah Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  20
Swamp Sparrow  2
White-throated Sparrow  3
Northern Cardinal  4
Indigo Bunting  1
Common Grackle  300     in groups of 30 flying west
House Finch  12
American Goldfinch  12
House Sparrow  2