Yesterday afternoon, I added #100 species to my yard list: pair of WOOD DUCKs (M and F) puttering along on Gulf Creek behind our property. In 7 yrs of yard listing, never saw them before, though I've had Mallards and occasionally Great Blue Herons stop by in the creek.
Then before I finished celebrating, #101: BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER showed up! Even though I've never had one on the yard list before, I knew it before I got the binocs on it from the small size, flittiness, and long tail. We've had both Kinglets already this year, but BGGN was using more open branches than either of those species seemed to prefer. He sang a bit but my attempt to record it was blown away by a SONG SPARROW that kicked into high gear at the same time. During the same period, I heard quite unexpectedly, then shortly after saw, RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH when it landed on and foraged on a Shagbark Hickory not 20' from me. This morning, I figured I'd get any fallout from the south wind migrants hitting the cold front (it dropped 15deg since I walked the dog earlier this morning). And indeed, I finally got my HERMIT THRUSH first of year, in fact, a pair of them foraging near each other. At the same time I was watching them under some small pines, a flock of YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERs appeared (we eventually resolved 10) and mixed in was a NASHVILLE WARBLER in full color hopping around on the ground with a couple strands of nest material (though I doubt he or she will actually nest here). That Nashville is #102 on the yard list! Big Day! I was caught between the birds and the house with no camera, but eventually sidled up a side trail, ran to the house to alert Martha, and to grab my camera, and eventually got pics of the YRWA and HETH but lost the NAWA. And while all these guys were hopping and flitting, 2 CAROLINA WRENs were foraging with them, and a WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH flew over to examine the ruckus. Two YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKERs were playing or contending for an old sumac pole that one of them has been making a hole in for the last couple of weeks, and EASTERN PHOEBE and AMERICAN ROBINs were there for the action as well. It's always fun to go from almost dead quiet (excepf for the variety of distant ear birds) to a crazy frenzy, then it all passes like a little storm of feathers. But while standing still waiting for the HETH to reappear, I saw movement in the creek bed and shot a series of a RED FOX making its way up the creek (the Wood Ducks were not there today though a Mallard flew low over the creek while we were watching the YRWAs somewhat before the fox appeared). I don't think the fox ever saw me so I had pics of it approaching and going away (I was too far from the bank to get side shots without moving forward and alerting it). This was only the second time I've seen Red Fox on the property, though Martha saw this one a few days ago, and it's the first time I got pics of one. ChrisP ______________________ Chris Pelkie Research Analyst Bioacoustics Research Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 -- 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/ --
