Joel McNeal, DeeAnne Meliopoulos, Mark McShane and I birded the State Botanical Gardens this morning. We had a good number of cooperative birds that gave us nice visuals including highlights: BARRED OWL, GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER, RED-EYED VIREO, NORTHERN PARULA, MAGNOLIA WARBLER, CAPE MAY WARBLER, BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER, YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER, AMERICAN REDSTART, NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH, LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH, YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT, SUMMER TANAGER, SCARLET TANAGER, EASTERN MEADOWLARK, and BALTIMORE ORIOLE. We totaled 21 warbler species (including the very cooperative YBCH in the powerline cut). I know that Jim McMinn had two species indepently of our group that we did not have: SPOTTED SANDPIPER and HERMIT THRUSH. That means that at least 80 species were seen in the botanical garden today! I've included the ebird report which has a few notes as to location of the species.

Location: State Botanical Garden of Georgia
Observation date: 5/1/08
Notes: Birders: James Neves, Joel McNeal, DeeAnne Meliopoulos, Mark McShane
Number of species: 78


Canada Goose 4
Wood Duck 4
Mallard 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 2
Rock Pigeon 7
Mourning Dove 6
Barred Owl 3 One (of two) fledgling seen again on White Trail along river along with Adult. Only an adult found at other nesting site; nest tree could not be located.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 3
Red-headed Woodpecker 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 5
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Pileated Woodpecker 2
Acadian Flycatcher 6
Eastern Phoebe 3
Great Crested Flycatcher 3
Eastern Kingbird 1
White-eyed Vireo 7
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 16
Blue Jay 9
American Crow 5
Fish Crow 5
Barn Swallow 3
Carolina Chickadee 14
Tufted Titmouse 16
Brown-headed Nuthatch 3
Carolina Wren 20
House Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 22 2 nests located.
Eastern Bluebird 1
Veery 1 Heard on upper Orange Trail.
Gray Catbird 5
Northern Mockingbird 1
Brown Thrasher 5
European Starling 2
Cedar Waxwing 3
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Northern Parula 9 1 very cooperative female around lower parking at powerline cut.
Chestnut-sided Warbler 3
Magnolia Warbler 1 Beautiful male seen in lower parking area.
Cape May Warbler 8
Black-throated Blue Warbler 6
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2
Yellow-throated Warbler 1 Male with atypical song continues (since March!) in powerline cut.
Pine Warbler 6
Blackpoll Warbler 6
Cerulean Warbler 2 Heard along Orange Trail up the hill from the beaver pond and Purple Trail split.
Black-and-white Warbler 4
American Redstart 9
Worm-eating Warbler 1
Ovenbird 1 Heard upriver from where the Orange Trail turns away from the river.
Northern Waterthrush 2 Seen and heard along White Trail, at least halfway to where the trail turns away from the river.
Louisiana Waterthrush 3 White trail along river.
Kentucky Warbler 4
Common Yellowthroat 3
Hooded Warbler 9
Yellow-breasted Chat 1 Very cooperative male in the lower part of the powerline cut near the river.
Summer Tanager 6 Male at the lower parking area and seen displaying at the top of the powerline cut near the Hazard Waste site.
Scarlet Tanager 4
Eastern Towhee 8
Chipping Sparrow 8
White-throated Sparrow 16
Northern Cardinal 36
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 2
Blue Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 12
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Eastern Meadowlark 2 Along Milledge Road near horse stables or along road leading to the service barn and small pond.
Common Grackle 15
Brown-headed Cowbird 3
Baltimore Oriole 1 Singing male seen in privet eradication area.
House Finch 6
American Goldfinch 18
House Sparrow 3

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Hello everyone, I wanted to mention one more time about our fund raising efforts for the Jekyll Island Banding Station (JIBS). We have had a great response, but wanted to let everyone know there is still time to donate. We will begin the competition tomorrow evening at 5pm and end at Charlie Elliott at 5pm Saturday. It should be great fun. Thanks to the Oconee Audubon Society for all your help.

Sincerely,
John Mark Simmons
The Thunderbirders

Don't miss our monthly meeting tonight when Maureen O'Brien will talk about native drought resistant plants!
We will also have a native plant swap and our annual volunteer recognition event!
-------------------------------------

"Gardening with Native Plants "

Maureen O'Brien, horticulturist at the UGA College of Environment and
Design and key member of the Athens-Clarke County Tree Council, will
talk about deer-resistant and drought-resistant native plants that
attract birds and other wildlife. Following her presentation, we will
have an informal plant swap. Bring a plant that you would like to
share with someone else, and participate in the first ORAS pass-along
plant swap!

ORAS volunteers will star during our annual volunteer appreciation
event. Current president Edwige Damron will be recognizing and
thanking each and every volunteer. This is one of the many activities
that she began and for which we need to recognize her as she steps
down from the presidency.

Election of Officers for the upcoming year will also take place during
the May meeting since several nominees will be out of town in June.
Following is the list of nominees:

Vanessa Lane, President
Edwige Damron, Vice-president
Mary Case, Secretary
Jim McMinn, Treasurer
Big City Bread will provide scrumptious refreshments for our busy
evening. Thank you, Big City Bread!

The program, which is open to the public, will begin at 7:00 p.m. in
the ENSAT Building at Sandy Creek Nature Center. For directions,
please call the Sandy Creek Nature Center at 706-613-3615 x0

Well, if you bird often enough you're sure to see encounter most anything. I certainly had a rare bird today. I went to do some lunchtime birding at Harris Shoals Park in Watkinsville this afternoon. It was a beautiful, idyllic setting: water rippling down the shows, bright sunshine, warm temperatures, Pine Warbler, Summer Tanager and Yellow-breasted Chat singing. Suddenly, from across the shoals came the grating, raucous notes of someone playing the bagpipes.

Dear God, I'm not suggesting that people who drown out bird songs with bagpipes should be shot. Likely flogging would suffice. *grin*

Nonetheless, it wasn't a bad outing. I got good looks at Cape May Warblers and American Redstart and a Veery. Highlights were:

Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Eastern Phoebe 2
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
White-eyed Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 6
Eastern Bluebird 1
Veery 1
Northern Parula 2
Cape May Warbler 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler 10
Yellow-throated Warbler 1
Pine Warbler 2
American Redstart 1
Worm-eating Warbler 1
Yellow-breasted Chat 1
Summer Tanager 1
Chipping Sparrow 2
American Goldfinch 10

For any who haven't visited Harris Shoals Park in Watkinsville, please let me suggest you do. It's a charming park with a beautiful creek flowing down from a dammed pond across some lovely shoals. There is a trail that circles the park and pond including a boardwalk across the upstream wetland. The park is just on the downtown Watkinsville side of the Watkinsville bypass on the GA53 exit.

Ed.

RE: the Audubon mtg tonight.
I have about 10+ 4" pots of bee balm (Monarda) and a couple 4" pots of yarrow to bring tonight. I have more at the house, if you can't make it tonight but are interested in some of these, email me at the address below.

We (my coworker and I) are also going to be selling a rare Georgia plant we propagated from seed (with the appropriate DNR permit) via the Athens Locally Grown coop. It's called Silene regia or Royal Catchfly. If you are not a member of the coop, I can bring some tonight if anyone is interested. Here's what they look like now:
http://athens.locallygrown.net/photos/show/635
here's what they look like when flowering:
http://www.missouriplants.com/Redopp/Silene_regia_plant.jpg
It's a pretty good native hummingbird plant.

We'll be selling them for $4 for a 4" pot. Email me off list at steve_holzman AT yahoo.com if you want me to bring any for you.

OK, so this is late, but is anyone going to the Bot Gardens tomorrow morning who I can go with? I was going to try to Kennesaw but it doesn't look like that's going to work. My email is deeanne.mel@gmail.com

While I don't live in as nice an area as Mark to attempt a BIGBY this year, I've been hitting the State Botanical Garden many mornings before work over the past 3 weeks as the next best alternative (think globally, bird locally!). I've also been entering the sightings I'm confident of into ebird, where a significant database for the botanical garden already exists. For 2008, 121 species have been reported from the botanical garden on ebird ( http://tinyurl.com/5neptg ), with 114 of those having been reported in April. That's a pretty good month for one spot in Athens, I'd say. On top of that, 101 species have been reported there in the past week alone! 29 warbler species were reported from the botanical garden for the month of April ([cough] I believe Kennesaw only had 28 [cough]...), with 27 in just the past week. Unlike Kennesaw, we have yet to pass 20 warblers in a single day (hit 18-19 a couple times; counting the Chats and combining Vanessa's Ovenbird, there were exactly 20 today), and we haven't yet had Canada, Bay-breasted, or Golden-winged this year (there's actually never been a spring report of Golden-winged Warbler from the botanical garden). And you can't expect Blackburnians and Black-throated Greens counts in the 20's here like at Kennesaw. The botanical garden is much better for Waterthrushes and a few other species, though.

With ebird, you can also see when each species arrived at the botanical garden this year (http://tinyurl.com/5m8jxq ) and compare it to previous years (e.g. 2007= http://tinyurl.com/5cofxo ). Shouldn't we already have Yellow-billed Cuckoos there by now? Let's see, previous botgarden arrival dates have been April 29th in 2007, April 17th in 2006, May 9th in 2005, and April 24th in 2004. So they do seem to be running late this year, but arrival in May isn't unprecedented. How about Swainson's Warblers? The past few years the arrival dates have been Apr 8 ('07), Apr 21 ('06), Apr 17 ('05), and Apr 24 ('04). You can tell when the last time a certain bird was reported at the botanical garden by searching for the all-time 'departure date' ( http://tinyurl.com/6anjtp ). The last Swainson's Warbler there was reported by the O'Gradys on April 29, 2007. So they didn't stick around to nest last summer, and they haven't been seen yet this year well past their normal arrival date. It's not looking like the reliable spot it used to be for that uncommon species since I came to town (boo).

Another thing you can search in ebird is the all time high count for any species. James and I had a dozen Blackpoll Warblers this morning. Must be the highest count there ever, right? ( http://tinyurl.com/3pq62z ) Nope, foiled by those darned O'Gradys, who had 13 Blackpolls on April 29th last year (note; if you want to get lots of Blackpoll Warblers, the last 2 days of April at the botanical garden appear to be a good bet...). Now that all those snags are falling at the beaverpond, is the Red-headed Woodpecker colony really dwindling? High count this year has been 2, last year's high was 5, 2006 was 10, and 2005 was 10. I think the beavers need to get to work, flood some more forest, and make some fresh standing dead snags!

If all the good birders in Georgia entered data in ebird for their favorite hotspots, you can see what a valuable tool it could be (it's already pretty cool for the botgarden with less than 4 years of pretty decent coverage). If you already keep electronic records in software such as AviSys or even in just an excel spreadsheet, you can use ebird's import tool to upload your data with relative ease (http://tinyurl.com/48eqsw ). As long as your sightings are accurate, I'd urge you to think about helping to increase public knowledge of any place you bird regularly (or even irregularly) by publicly sharing your records on ebird. And even if you don't report your sightings, get out there and bird this week. Migration is peaking RIGHT NOW!

James Neves and I birded a good portion of the botanical garden early this morning and had another 18-warbler morning (19 if you count Chat), including FOTS Magnolia and Blackburnian. We also had a probable Northern Waterthrush giving call notes along the river on the orange trail but never got a visual or song to verify. We didn't quite reach the 23 warbler species seen at Kennesaw this morning, but a short trip to the botgarden sure beats weekday Atlanta morning traffic in my opinion. We had 2 fresh-outta-the-nest, whisper-hissing, downy Barred Owls and a parent directly above us on the white trail along the river a couple hundred yards upstream of the spur trail to the greenhouses where an adult has been seen frequently in the past week (a good distance from Vanessa's and certainly from a different nest). Still no Cuckoos there yet; I'm considering sprinkling some Cocoa Puffs around to draw them in. Some highlights from our ebird report were:

Great Blue Heron 3 (all flying upstream along white trail; croaking possibly from rookery)
Cooper's Hawk 1 (adult female flying south down powerline across river into woods)
Barred Owl 3 (2 downy young and adult)
Acadian Flycatcher 5
Great Crested Flycatcher 4
Eastern Kingbird 1 (perched on snag across river on white trail)
Blue-headed Vireo 1 (privet eradication area)
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2 (international garden)
Barn Swallow 2 (flyovers at a couple spots)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3 (still a few around)
Orange-crowned Warbler 1 (riparian white trail just in from powerline)
Northern Parula 5
Chestnut-sided Warbler 4 (scattered; best look in perennial garden)
Magnolia Warbler 1 (lower parking lot)
Cape May Warbler 5 (various)
Black-throated Blue Warbler 4 (best look near OCWA site)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 13
Blackburnian Warbler 1 (canopy at junction of blue and white trails)
Yellow-throated Warbler 1 (powerline at deer fence; same weird singer)
Pine Warbler 4
Blackpoll Warbler 12 (all over)
Black-and-white Warbler 2 (kinda quiet these days)
American Redstart 3 (2 on riparian white trail)
Worm-eating Warbler 2 (along river)
Louisiana Waterthrush 2 (both on riparian white trail)
Kentucky Warbler 5
Common Yellowthroat 3
Hooded Warbler 6
Yellow-breasted Chat 2 (riparian white trail near owl spot and powerline at river)
Summer Tanager 6
Scarlet Tanager 3
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 2

I birded the Bot Garden this morning and spotted Joel's and James Neves' cars, so I decided to take the white trail down to the river, past the privet eradication zone, and then all the way up until it hits the power cut in the very back loop. The major highlight was a BARRED OWL NEST!!! There is at least one chick sitting in the top of a snapped off, dead tree on the left fork of the white trail after it takes a 90 degree turn away from the river. Walk up the left fork approximately 50-75m, then look uphill. If you hit a log that's been cut with a chainsaw across the trail that's about 10" in diameter, you're in the right spot. I wouldn't have spotted it if it weren't for a mobbing Scarlet Tanager and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. One adult came in to feed the chick while I watched.

I snapped some really bad photos. My camera was on the wrong setting, which stinks because my digiscoped images (through my binoculars) were pretty decent. Those of you with better camera equipment would have better luck. Just please respect the animals and maintain a respectable distance! Here are the links:

http://www.geckolair.com/pictures/barredowlnestsmall.jpg
http://www.geckolair.com/pictures/barredowlchick.jpg

I also had my FOTY MAGNOLIA WARBLER foraging by the sign in the power cut on the little trail following the fence to the right. I had 14 species of warblers, including a lone OVENBIRD about 75m past the shelter on the white trail. A WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH was calling in the Perennial Garden exactly where we had a pair a month or two ago. I had a total of 67 species, not bad for a 3 hour slow walk!

Northern Parula 3
Magnolia Warbler 1
Cape May Warbler 10
Black-throated Blue Warbler 2 (one was at the entrance to the park)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 16
Yellow-throated Warbler 1 (past shelter on white trail)
Pine Warbler 3
Black-and-white Warbler 2
American Redstart 6
Ovenbird 1 (past shelter on white trail - NOT singing, seen)
Kentucky Warbler 4 (all along riverside trail)
Common Yellowthroat 4
Hooded Warbler 5
Yellow-breasted Chat 1 (in privet eradication zone)
Summer Tanager 5
Scarlet Tanager 3

"Our" yearly Bobolinks have appeared pretty much on schedule on our neighbor's organic farm. Carole posted on GABO earlier, so I'm copying here. Mark

ps - if you don't see any at the site below, the SE corner of Old Farmington Rd and Astondale Rd is another place we've seen them. Also, the UGA agricultural research fields on Gov't Station Rd is another good place to check.

---------------------
Subject: They're ba-ack! Rice birds
From: Carole Ludwig <carolelud AT AOL.COM>
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:15:31 -0400

While riding on my neighbor's organic farm this morning, I saw a small (12-15) flock of Bobolinks, most in beautiful plumage. There was a larger flock of what may have been females, but not having my bins, could not say for sure. Bobolinks show up on this farm reliably every year, and might be viewed from Old Farmington Rd. in Oconee Co. DeLorme p. 28, grid A3. DeLorme road names do not agree with road signage. Traveling south on Old Farmington Rd. after turning off Poplar Springs Rd. (DeLorme), but really Astondale Rd., go not quite 2 mi. to the Moon Shadow Horse sign on the right (not my farm). The Bobolinks are in the field across from the horse farm, unfortunately near the back this AM. This is private property, so please stay on OFR. If you e-mail me before you come, I can take you onto the property to increase your chances of seeing them. Carole Ludwig Watkinsville, Oconee Co.

The botanical garden had 17 warbler species (not including Chat) this morning, including both Waterthrush spp. and 7 Black-throated Blue Warblers. The Northern Waterthrush again pished cooperatively and walked around on the trail a few feet away (it sang a couple times earlier in the morning). 2 fighting females and one smug male Blue Grosbeak were pretty photogenic in the international garden ( http://www.pbase.com/joelmcneal/newest ). Highlights were:

Green Heron 1 (flying into the botgarden as I left the entrance gate)
Swainson's Thrush 1 (orange trail)
Gray Catbird 7
Blue-winged Warbler 1 (white trail)
Northern Parula 5
Yellow Warbler 1 (white trail)
Cape May Warbler 3 (white trail and perennial garden)
Black-throated Blue Warbler 7 (group of 5 on white trail)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 8
Pine Warbler 8 (including fledglings)
Palm Warbler 1 (orange trail)
Blackpoll Warbler 4 (scattered)
Black-and-white Warbler 2
American Redstart 5 (scattered)
Worm-eating Warbler 1 (white trail)
Northern Waterthrush 1 (white trail near spur to greenhouses)
Louisiana Waterthrush 2 (including one at privet erad. area, where NOWA was seen last night)
Kentucky Warbler 4
Common Yellowthroat 4
Hooded Warbler 7
Yellow-breasted Chat 3
Summer Tanager 4
Scarlet Tanager 3
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 2 (both white trail)
Blue Grosbeak 3 (international garden)
Indigo Bunting 8
Eastern Meadowlark 1 (S. Milledge fields)

FOTS Indigo Bunting yesterday, loving the tiny white seed I had spread out on the ground. Also, singing up a storm were summer tanagers, and the great crested flycatcher brought along its mate to check out the duck/owl/squirrel/birdhouse in my backyard. Eastern bluebirds should be fledging any day, babes are 17 days old today, and the parents have yet to find the mealworm feeder. The chickadees are fat and happy from them and are now bringing their fledglings to snack on the tasty treats. I guess the insect population is enough to feed five baby bluebirds without supplementing with mealworms, or else I have nearsighted bluebird parents in my yard.

My high-frequency deafness results in a somewhat similar phenomenon during the usual morning birding. For example I often hear distant Cuckoos, Pileateds, and Redwing Blackbirds when my birding partners do not until I mention them -- I assume because of all the other things they are hearing.

Feeder FOTS Rose Breasted Grossbeak yesterday and back this a.m.

Edited by author 04-29-2008 12:38 AM
Birding the botanical garden in the evening is a very different experience from in the mornings. You can't expect a burgeoning species list, but every chip note or leaf rustle stands out in the relative silence. It's amazing how far you can hear when you subtract out all the singing Vireos, Cardinals, and Carolina Wrens (the downside being you can also hear distant traffic, trail conversations, cheering at the softball/soccer fields, etc.). I went there this evening hoping to spot a FOTS Yellow-billed Cuckoo, but failed in that endeavor. However, as I walked from the powerline to the privet eradication area, I could hear chip notes of Hooded and Kentucky Warblers approaching. Males of both species came within 4 feet of me, and at times were within a foot of one another (I wonder if they understand each other's chips?). Then I heard the telltale 'szt-szts' of a pair of Worm-eating Warblers a few yards ahead, and the rustling sounds as they ferociously attacked clusters of dead leaves in the shrubbery were loud and ridiculously easy to pinpoint. They were even less shy, sometimes approaching within a few feet of my face (they looked like they were eating more caterpillars than worms). Maybe after dealing with a full day of dozens of runners and other passersby, a quiet birder on the trail isn't an obstacle worth worrying about while searching for the evening's last meal. I then heard a Waterthrush chip note that sounded suspiciously Northern (coarser than a Louisiana, with a solid ending). That's a favorite spot of Louisianas, so I wasn't about to claim certainty on the ID from call notes, but a few pishes in the quiet evening drew the Waterthrush up into the shrubbery for close examination; a slighter bird than I was expecting, nice and dingy with dense streaking across the chest (almost a breast band), streaking on the throat, and a nice, even, up-and-down Palm-Warblery tail pump (instead of a side-to-side, southern belle sahshay). A very polite NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH. As far as I know from looking at ebird, it's the first spring record of a Northern from the botgarden (plenty from September, after the Louisianas have departed). As I was enjoying watching he and the Wormies foraging, a couple folks with a dog came through, and that was the last I saw of the Waterthrush and other Warblers within that wonderful 30 ft stretch of trail. When I notified them that dogs aren't allowed in the botgarden, they thanked me and kept right on walking (unfortunately, my binoculars cost a little too much to wield as nunchucks...but I thought about it). Later, while returning to my car through the native plant garden, a leaf rustle and flutter of wings alerted me to an otherwise silent SWAINSON'S THRUSH (also FOTS) who had flown up on a cross-branch in the open. He seemed surprised to see me (but then again, they all do with those buffy spectacles). No cuckoos, but good evening birding nonetheless (except for the dog owners).

I had my first of the year rose breasted grosbeak at my feeder when I came home from work this afternoon about 5.

The Oconee Rivers Audubon Society had a field trip to Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Newton and Jasper Counties on Saturday. Despite a threat of rain and thunderstorms the weather was nice with fair skies and low winds for most of the day. Observers Bill and Karla O'Grady, Vanessa Lane, James Neves, Jim McMinn and Ed Maioriello birded the center from just after 7AM until around 1:30 in the afternoon.

Immediately after pulling in to get a map at the Jasper County entrance we had an American Redstart singing along with the ever-present Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. Our next stop was the Teal Pond and the fields behind it. As we were pulling into the Teal Pond we had at least one Grasshopper Sparrow singing from the field along the drive. Field Sparrows were singing from all around the pond, and we were delighted to hear a Northern Bobwhite call out his name. The real prize here was a Yellow-breasted Chat that we heard singing. We found him on the western end of the first field behind the Teal Pond. This bird went through his repertoire over and over including performing his display flight for us a number of times. All observers got to watch this guy over and over. It was the best look at a chat that I'd ever had no doubt. On the way out from the Teal Pond we worked the field with the Grasshopper Sparrows and got good looks at 3 of them, as well as a number of Savannah Sparrows. While looking at the sparrows we had earlier had a flock of unidentified yellowish birds fly overhead. We we able to relocate this flock and realize that it was a flock of female and first summer male Orchard Orioles. We had one 1 first summer male perch atop a low tree and sing for us for quite a few minutes.

Down the road from the Teal Pond we listened to a Yellow-throated Vireo singing from an oak tree and all got a good look at a very cooperative male Cape May Warbler.

The next highlights occurred down near the dam on Fox Lake. Shortly after arriving we had a Yellow-billed Cuckoo singing. We were reluctant to identify an early Cuckoo by song alone with so many chipmonks around, but this bird was mighty distinctive in its song. Happily, we did see the bird as it flew from one location to another so we had no doubt as to the id. The Osprey platform there to the left of the dam had a nesting pair on it. That's always a delight to see. We also had an adult Orchard Oriole show off for us here. One humorous note was we had know that Tree Swallows will nest in bluebird boxes, but we had a pair that was aspiring for more - a Wood Duck box! Below the dam in the little beaver pond we had both a Spotted and a Solitary Sandpiper working the shallows.

Bennett Pond was full, and full of fishermen, so we didn't have much luck with shorebirds there, though we did get a Green Heron and another Spotted Sandpiper in flight. Just across the dam from Bennett Pond in the parking area of the Margery Pond facilities we had a pair of Northern Rough-winged Swallows trying to outdo the Tree Swallows by building their nest in the exhaust pipe of a Ford pickup truck. Suspecting that this was not going to be a successful nest, we had our fears by seeing the truck had left about an hour later.

Walking the Red Trail around the Clubhouse Pond from the Visitor Center we were treated to Acadian Flycatchers, Eastern Wood-Pewees and Summer Tanagers singing as well as a great look at male and female Wood Ducks. The conclusion of our trip was no less visual - while looking at a beautiful male Scarlet Tanager we located a Ruby-throated Hummingbird nest with the female on the nest and the male displaying for her. It was a wonderful day with many great looks at some really nice birds. We had 87 species for the day.

Location: Charlie Elliot Wildlife Center
Observation date: 4/26/08
Notes: ORAS Field Trip, Observers B & K O'Grady, V. Lane, J. Neves, J. McMinn, E. Maioriello, 60-75F, Cloudy to Fair, calm. One Sparrow species first thought to be LISP but wrong habitat and not certain.
Number of species: 87

Canada Goose 24
Wood Duck 4
Northern Bobwhite 3
Double-crested Cormorant 11
Great Blue Heron 3
Green Heron 3
Black Vulture 5
Turkey Vulture 18
Osprey 2 nesting pair
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Broad-winged Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Killdeer 3
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Mourning Dove 20
Common Ground-Dove 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Chimney Swift 4
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2 nesting pair
Belted Kingfisher 2
Red-headed Woodpecker 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 8
Downy Woodpecker 4
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Pileated Woodpecker 4
Eastern Wood-Pewee 3
Acadian Flycatcher 3
Eastern Phoebe 4
Great Crested Flycatcher 10
Eastern Kingbird 12
White-eyed Vireo 20
Yellow-throated Vireo 5
Red-eyed Vireo 11
Blue Jay 18
American Crow 8
Fish Crow 1
Tree Swallow 5
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 13
Barn Swallow 7
Carolina Chickadee 12
Tufted Titmouse 15
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown-headed Nuthatch 4
Carolina Wren 10
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 35
Eastern Bluebird 9
Wood Thrush 3
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 5
Brown Thrasher 4
European Starling 1
Cedar Waxwing 20
Northern Parula 2
Cape May Warbler 2
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 18
Yellow-throated Warbler 1
Pine Warbler 5
Palm Warbler 2
Black-and-white Warbler 6
American Redstart 2
Kentucky Warbler 3
Common Yellowthroat 7
Hooded Warbler 2
Yellow-breasted Chat 3
Summer Tanager 8
Scarlet Tanager 3
Eastern Towhee 9
Chipping Sparrow 24
Field Sparrow 4
Savannah Sparrow 7
Grasshopper Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 15
Northern Cardinal 40
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Blue Grosbeak 2
Indigo Bunting 23
Red-winged Blackbird 12
Eastern Meadowlark 5
Common Grackle 12
Brown-headed Cowbird 12
Orchard Oriole 8
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch 20

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2

Ed.