Sunday, October 18, 2015

Bird Walk at Mt. Pleasant Farms (Howard County Conservancy)

Seven of us enjoyed a morning of birding in Ho County at Mount Pleasant Farm. Chilly at first, but for the most part a beautiful sunny day. We had 9 species of sparrow and a nice variety of birds overall. Some highlights:

Sharp-Shinned Hawk (1)
Cooper's Hawk (1, great looks)
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker (2)
Raven (1, maybe 2)
Hermit Thrush (3)
White-Crowned Sparrow (5)
Lincoln's Sparrow (4)
Junco (1)

Tim Houghton
(Glen Arm)

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Friday Bird Walk at Patterson Park

I was hoping the rain would stop as I was driving south on I-95 to lead the bird walk. Even better than that, as the rain diminished a double rainbow appeared!

The first bird spotted was a FOS Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  We saw quite a few, and several Eastern Phoebes also flitted around the park.  A FOS Junco was also briefly seen in the community garden.  Enjoy photos from the walk, and be sure to join us in November.

Can you find the sapsucker?

We spotted quite a few birds in or near the community garden - junco, ruby-crowned kinglet, song sparrow, palm warbler,  towhee, mockingbird, and phoebe.


 
Adult Black-crowned Night Heron at the Boat Lake.  A juvenile wasn't too far away.

Along the boardwalk.  No red-winged blackbirds were found.

 
 
The wetland garden.  We didn't visit the pollinator garden - apparently it had recently been mowed down in error.  At least this area is still available to our late pollinators (like Monarchs!).


  
Bird list:
 
120 Mallard
2 Black-crowned Night Heron
1 Osprey
1 Cooper's Hawk
18 Ring-billed Gull
6 Mourning Dove
5 Chimney Swift
1 Downy Woodpecker
5 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
6 Northern Flicker
8 Eastern Phoebe
6 Blue Jay
1 Carolina Wren
1 Tufted Titmouse
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
5 American Robin
1 Gray Catbird
1 Northern Mockingbird
3 European Starling
2 Cedar Waxwing
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Palm Warbler
2 Field Sparrow
1 Dark-eyed Junco
1 Song Sparrow
1 Swamp Sparrow
2 Eastern Towhee
4 House Finch
4 American Goldfinch