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| Young Common Yellowthroat Male |
As soon as I get out of the car, I can hear a peewee calling from the woods behind the upper gardens as I did a few weeks ago.
The lower gardens were filled with robins. It seems like they're starting to group together. The late summer flowers look beautiful - towering yellow and mahogany sunflowers, pink, purple and orange zinnias, lilies and morning glories are all very festive. Saw a few blue jays, catbirds, goldfinches and a hummer feasting on garden goodies, starlings which seem to appear at this time of year, a young male cardinal that was not quite in full color yet and a baby song sparrow that hadn't really grown it's tail feathers, making it look a little silly. A house wren appeared, tsk, tsking and a few warbling vireos.
The upper gardens had pretty much the same but in addition, there were a few red-eyed vireos and this young male common yellowthroat (pictured above). I would have thought it a female, since I'm not very good at the fall plumage, but he opened his mouth and started singing and it was clear it was a male and he was young, because he certainly needed a lot of practice with his song, but you could hear the basic witchety, witchety somewhere in there! There was a hummer up here too and a mockingbird. Most of the birds were feasting on grapes and berries in the back of the gardens. A chimney swift flew overhead. I saw a young red-bellied woodpecker on a tree branch. I say it was young because it didn't have the red head we normally see on the adults.
The pond was dried up, but still filled with water lilies stuck to the mud and pickerel weed poking up and in bloom. No sign of any sandpipers. Saw another red-eyed vireo near the soccer field, some chickadees and a nuthatch. Otherwise, it was pretty quiet.
The river was very quiet save a kayaker and a few chickadees.
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