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)
Wow, that Eastern Tailed-Blue is absolutely stunning. I’m glad you got out. So did we. I saw a dragonfly and was going to go for a photo, but it got away from me. Same with a bumble bee. I don’t know how you do it!
Michael – never saw any odes on Saturday. In a way, it was a little weird, but that park had a low dragonfly count last year, too, so this might be a residual effect.
As for the photography, I was having a hard time focusing much of the day because of the lighting. The best trick I know is to get a shot from a distance, creep up a little, take another shot or two, creep up a little closer, take a shot or two, repeat until they’re too close to focus on or fly away (usually the latter). I think this was a newly hatched specimen drying its wings, which is why I was able to get so close. But the pose was all its own doing – although I was very thankful for it!
Amazing list of birds and Worm Eating Warbler . . . wow . . . S. Tanager already! SWEET!