back door birding
Had a most excellent morning on Sunday birding just out the back door with a half-dozen neighbors and one visiting professional guide who helped us identify the many lively fall migrants flitting through the trees and underbrush.
We got started about 7:30 near the pond, made our way around the veggie field, and were soon overwhelmed by the numbers of birds foraging along the edge of the woods.
Most plentiful were palm warblers giving excellent, close-up views on the ground or in low bushes, pumping their tails emphatically. When we got to the horse/cow path, the variety of birds became impressive. We ended up staying in front of one particular bush for quite a while as we just stood and watched a multitude of birds come and go. It was almost like a parade: there’s a blue-headed vireo, now another one, and in comes a northern parula, over there is a black-throated green warbler, up top is a blackpoll warbler, and down low are a couple more palm warblers……
And on it went. We caught a couple brief glimpses of a thrush, but not enough to make an i.d. We noticed a lot of phoebe and sparrow activity behind us in the brushy areas around the field, but never went over to get a good look, except one point when our guide pointed out a nice savannah sparrow.
We ended the walk by heading into the hayfield, which was nice, but surprisingly not as active as the veggie field/wood edge area where we’d begun.
Total list of what I noticed is below (I’m sure our guide or others who joined in could add more to this list):
Hairy Woodpecker (heard only, thanks to our visiting guide)
Northern Flicker (ditto)
Eastern Phoebe (many, many!)
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo (a couple nice views pretty close)
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee (always around)
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren (one preening in the warbler-laden bush)
American Robin
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Pine Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
American Goldfinch