Monday, June 25, 2012

Prospect 6/25:playful Cedar Waxwings; lingering Indigo Bunting

Observed today on my rounds along the south shore of the Lake, I watched at least a dozen CEDAR WAXWINGS playfully fly back and forth, to and fro among the various trees on Three Sisters Islands, right after the afternoon rainshower ( lots of soaking today!)

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Chris Holden sent me a note of last evening's observation of INDIGO BUNTING seen at Butterfly Meadow.Its likely a floater, an unattached male, but you never know until one observes long enough and see if it's possible a breeder..I doubt it but who would have thought on the Hummingbirds?

Here's Chris's note:

Hi Peter,

I was taking a late evening stroll yesterday through the park, and
came across a noisy Indigo Bunting male in the Butterfly Meadow atop
Lookout Hill.  I was curious as to whether they were normal summer
residents in Prospect Park, so I did a quick search using E-Bird.  It
looks that as far as June-July reports go, there's been a few
sightings of a single Indigo Bunting in recent years:

2012- the sighting yesterday
2010- a checklist you submitted for July, part of Prospect Park not specified
2009- 2 checklists submitted for July by Alex Wilson,  noted to be on
Lookout Hill both times, one time in the Butterfly Meadow, one time
noted to be a second year male.

Anyhow, it was a nice treat to run across him yesterday.  I wonder if
it's all the same bird, who's been nice enough (I find it hard not to
anthropomorphize) to linger around  Prospect Park for the past 4
summers (or at least put in an appearance in three of them) to add an
extra splash of color to the summer bird palette here.

Chris