Presenting…

I went out looking for migrant birds Saturday – because I just needed to get out of the house and away from work, although the weather wasn’t helping much (overcast and spritzing). But I did get to see some cool birds at Palmyra Cove, including a lifelist worm-eating warbler. Other highlights included my first decent shots of male and female eastern towhees, a bald eagle soaring overhead and a couple nice looks at a scarlet tanager (1st of year – CHECK).

And at the end of my hike, I got to enjoy a great view of a perfectly-formed (and probably newly hatched) Eastern Tailed-Blue. I think I took 100 pictures of this little guy hoping to get the perfect pose.

Trip List

* – lifelist, ^ – first of year

Many Chickadee, titmouse, cardinal, American robins, red-winged blackbirds, white-throated sparrows and goldfinches
• 4 Common Yellowthroat
• 1 Worm-eating Warbler *
• 25+ Yellow warblers (including numerous groups playing vigorous games of ‘tag’) ^
• 1 Yellow-rumped warbler
• 1 Palm Warbler
• 1 American redstart ^
• 10+ blue-gray gnatcatchers (including 2 with a nest)
• 1 White-eyed vireo
• 2 Carolina wren
• 2 House wren
• 1 Marsh wren
• 12+ Eastern towhee
• 1 Bald Eagle (3rd year juvenile flyover)
• 1 Scarlet Tanager ^
• 1 Orchard Oriole ^
• 12+ Red-bellied woodpecker
• 4 Downy woodpecker
• 1 Hairy woodpeckers
• 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch
• 1 American Crow
• 8 Canada Goose (incl. 2 nests)
• 2 Mallard
• 3 Blue-winged Teal (in the dredge pool) ^
• 25+ tree swallows
• 4 Nothern Rough-winged Swallows ^
• 2 Hermit Thrush ^
• 1 Catbird ^
• 4 Great Blue Heron (all flyovers)
• 2 Blue Jay
• 3 Song sparrow
• 1 Swamp sparrow
• 5 field sparrow
• 2 house sparrow
• 1 Brown-headed cowbird ^
• 1 Starling
• Rock Dove
• Mourning Dove
• Ring-billed Gull (flyover)