I spent a few hours birding Alley Pond Park this afternoon and had quite a few yellow-rumped warblers, two yellow warblers, a black and white warbler, two male parulas together (within four feet of the ground and within two feet of each other just west of the green metal storage bins where they store the adventure equipment), a few ovenbirds calling, one gnatcatcher, several towhees, chipping sparrows calling from several flowering cherries, and an amazing ruckus involving four woodpecker species (red-bellied, flicker, hairy, and downy) over, I assume, a nesting cavity although I could not find it. The male downy was quickly vanquished by a red-bellied, and flew off to the backside of a black cherry where it perched for several minutes. The other three species each involved pairs of birds, presumably mated pairs. They chased each other, flying around frantically, all the while vocalizing regularly for what I would guess was 5-7 minutes before the pair of red-bellied were the winners (although I'm not sure what they won!). Quite a show.
The wood anemone are in full bloom. What a wonderful spring ephemeral wildflower. John Turner -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
