Nothing warms my "autumn heart" than seeing sparrows. I would consider autumn a real favorite season not only for the crisp air but what comes through on those colder air masses: sparrows.
Despite working, I managed to squeezed in some free time before work, at lunchtime and after to bird the park's known good sparrow spots for my targets. That would be Butterfly Meadow, the Peninsula sumac grove, the phragmite edge of the lawn behind the rink that I did get to.Tomorrow if it isn't raining too much, I will try the Long Meadow spots. But today, 7 species sparrows made me a happy guy cause I know they are coming, the sparrow surge is coming......
Oh , check out the lake: the Northern Shovelers are starting to fill it up (93 !) ...and two GADWALL out there looked too nervous with those increasing numbers...
List:
Location: Prospect Park
Observation date: 10/6/09
Number of species: 39
Canada Goose 40
Mute Swan 6
Gadwall 2 lake; mixed pair
Mallard 30
Northern Shoveler 93 Lake western sector
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1 south lullwater
American Coot 1 lake
Herring Gull (American) X
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 2
Eastern Phoebe 3
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Swainson's Thrush 2 lookout
American Robin X
Gray Catbird 5 mostly peninsula sumacs
Brown Thrasher 2 behind rink,along labella cove
European Starling X
Magnolia Warbler 4
Black-throated Blue Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 2
Ovenbird 1
Common Yellowthroat 15
Eastern Towhee 1 male; butterfly meadow
Chipping Sparrow 1 rink
Savannah Sparrow 1 peninsula sumac grove
Song Sparrow 22 ubiquitous
Lincoln's Sparrow 1 peninsula sumac grove
Swamp Sparrow 1 rink
White-throated Sparrow 12 butterfly meadow + several other spots,conservatively
Northern Cardinal 3
Indigo Bunting 1 female/imm male butterfly meadow
Common Grackle 9 peninsula, peched high
American Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow X
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/)
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From Keir Randall:
Grand Army Plaza pines - many Golden-crowned Kinglets
Maryland Monument- Black-Throated Green Warblers, Black-Throated Blues, Nashvilles, Redstart, Magnolia, Blue-Headed Vireo etc
White and Red-breasted Nuthatches heard in Midwood
GreatBlue Heron flyover
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From Orrin Tilevitz:
As active as I've seen it, all over the place. The cooperative birds:
Mallard
Ruby-crowned kinglet
House finch
Northern Parula
Common yellowthroat (many, male and female)
Black-throated blue warbler (several)
Magnolia warbler
Blackpoll warbler
Red-eyed vireo (several)
Blue-headed vireo (several)
Catbird
Northern mockingbird
Bluejay
Swainson's thrush (several)
American robin
Song sparrow (some singing)
White-throated sparrow (common)
Swamp sparrow
Northern flicker
Red-bellied woodpecker
European starling
Mourning dove
Surprisingly, no obvious yellow-rumped warblers or house sparrows where I was, even though both had to have been there.
