Hi all, I made a lunch-hour run to the Hawthorn Orchard, hoping the excellent variety of songbirds would be active in between rain showers. I was not disappointed (who could be?): when I arrived just after noon there was a cacophony of warbler song as I entered the northeast section of the orchard. The highlight was a very vocal GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER which I heard almost immediately through the Tennessee, Blackpoll, and Yellow Warbler song. He was relatively easy to find, actively foraging the the (low) tree tops. When I left just after 1:00 PM he was in the same area, softly vocalizing.
I'm not sure what happened, but shortly after I arrived (around 12:15) the birds all got very quiet, and it remained that way through the rest of my stay. Songs were given periodically, many were softer than when I arrived (like the Golden-wing), but visually the birds were just as active. I suspect the presence of an accipiter or other predator given the behavior of a near-murder of crows who were mobbing a tall conifer towards the middle of the orchard. My full eBird list is below. Cheers, Mike -- Mike Powers Horseheads, NY Hawthorn Orchard, Tompkins, US-NY May 19, 2011 12:05 PM - 1:05 PM Protocol: Traveling 0.25 mile(s) Comments: Lunch-hour trip between rain showers, ideally to photograph warblers. Conditions: 77*F, 80% cloud cover, light South/SouthEast breeze, no precipitation though dark clouds were approaching when I left. 40 species Mallard 2 Red-tailed Hawk 1 Rock Pigeon 1 Mourning Dove 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Downy Woodpecker 1 Hairy Woodpecker 1 Red-eyed Vireo 2 Blue Jay 3 American Crow 11 Mobbing a tall conifer (White Pine?) standing southwest of the Northeast section of the orchard. Never saw what was in that pine. Barn Swallow 7 Black-capped Chickadee 2 Tufted Titmouse 1 Veery 1 American Robin 4 Gray Catbird 2 European Starling 5 Cedar Waxwing 2 Golden-winged Warbler 1 Tennessee Warbler 7 Nashville Warbler 1 Northern Parula 1 Yellow Warbler 3 Chestnut-sided Warbler 3 Magnolia Warbler 1 Cape May Warbler 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 2 Blackburnian Warbler 1 Bay-breasted Warbler 1 Blackpoll Warbler 4 American Redstart 1 Common Yellowthroat 4 Chipping Sparrow 1 Song Sparrow 2 Scarlet Tanager 1 Northern Cardinal 2 Indigo Bunting 2 Brown-headed Cowbird 3 Baltimore Oriole 3 American Goldfinch 2 This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://ebird.org) -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
