Hello birders.
I wanted to search for sparrows on the east side of Sky Meadows today. First I
wanted to make a brief stop at the fishing pond but it turned into a thorough
sparrow search. I heard them call before I got out of the car. One of the
first birds I saw was a nice Lincoln's Sparrow. Lots of sparrows were foraging
in the shrubs, tall grass and weeds. I saw/heard 9 species of sparrows.
Beautiful autumn day.
I wanted to do a loop along the bridle trails but there was some sort of
equestrian event going on. So I did the Shearman's Mill Trail. It, too, held
many sparrows.
Other migrants included my FOS Brown Creeper, both kinglets and 3 species of
warblers.
List of notables is below. First number is fishing pond, second number is
Shearman's Mill Trail:
Canada Goose, 156/0. Double counted or under counted? Lots of flocks in
flight. Don't know how much moving back and forth was going on. Guessing each
flock was mostly new birds.
Pied-billed Grebe, 0/1. On large farm pond to west of trail.
Turkey Vulture, 5/2. Most seen over distant ridge to north rather than over
the park.
Bald Eagle, 0/1 adult
Red-tailed Hawk, 1/1
Am. Kestrel, 1 male/0
Red-headed Wood., 0/1E. Phoebe, 1/2
Blue Jay, 0/6 (migration winding down?)
Am. Crow, 0/2
Com. Raven, 0/1Brown Creeper, 0/2
G.c. Kinglet, 0/2
R.c. Kinglet, 1/0
Am. Robin, 1/0
Cedar Wax., 0/6 (3 ad., 3 imm.) Some were eating grapes.
Tennessee Warbler, 1/0. Beautiful first fall sex unknown or adult female.
Bright greenish upperparts. Feeding in patch of weeds and bushes.
Com. Yellowthroat, 0/1
Western Palm Warbler, 2/1
Yellow-rumped Warbler, 0/15
E. Towhee, 0/6
Chipping Sparrow, 1/2
Field Sparrow, 0/4
Savannah Sparrow, 12/2
Song Sparrow, 20/28
Lincoln's Sparrow, 2/4
Swamp Sparrow, 2/2
White-thr. Sparrow, 1/5
White-cr. Sparrow, 2 (1 imm., 1 ad.)/1 (ad.)
R.w. Blackbird, 5/0
E. Meadowlark, 15 (many of these were just outside of park on adj. farm
property to the north)
7 species of butterflies. Most were not nectaring. Most common species was
Common Buckeye.
Scott Baron
Vienna, Va.
