Birding the Day After
Published: October 14, 2018
Tags: Parks and Preserves, Brant, Indigo Bunting, Eastern Towhee, Northern Pintail
Yesterday was the BOS October Count and today would normally be a day I'd take off and relax. For some reason, though, I felt a pull to get back "out there"... And I'm glad I did because I
enjoyed a few nice sightings.
There
were four Brant on the naval stations's lawn seen through the fence at
Times Beach. We just had a very cooperative young Brant visiting the
area recently so this sighting was a surprise as they don't stop along
Lake Erie very often.
Walking
back from the blind, I noticed it was unusually quiet. I heard a
couple of very soft cheeps and I stopped to look around. Nothing. I took a
step and "whoosh"!!! My first thought was I had flushed a Ruffed
Grouse! That would be very unlikely but that's what I thought. The noise was thunderous
as at least 20 sparrows and juncos all flew out of the leaf litter with a
powerful rush of their wings. In the next second, a Cooper's Hawk swooped
in but came up empty. Well, that explained everything. The young coop took a perch in a small tree and let me get a
few photos of him - he must have been very hungry. His head kept cocking
from one side to the other, listening for anything he could call
"lunch". I left him to his hunt, hoping he'd move up front and go for a House Sparrow or starling.
A
couple of other nice birds today were a female Eastern Towhee, two Fox Sparrows, my
first of the season, and a late Indigo Bunting. The bunting must be a
male as there's still a good amount of blue on his back and I heard him
sing once. Three Tree Swallows flew overhead, the first I've seen in at least a couple of weeks. And ducks are coming in. I had 3 Northern Pintails (one of my favorites) and a Northern Shoveler fly over, some Gadwall on the pond, and 3 Lesser Scaup flew in and settled on the pond. These are signs of winter, which I'm not ready for, but I am always happy to see new arrivals!