His visit was co-sponsored by the Harris Center for Conservation Education, and he gave an interesting, informative talk there Friday evening that included listening to lots of birdsong. But the real fun was Saturday morning.

Unfortunately it was pouring rain at 5am, the time Don had agreed to head outside with whoever wanted to get up that early. Despite the weather, Dori and I joined Don on the porch of the common house and considered our options as it rained and lightening flashed. After some minutes, though, the thunder passed and we actually heard a bird start singing — a brave (and wet) chipping sparrow. Then a robin. The rain seemed to let up a bit, so we put up our rain hoods and headed off the porch.

The morning eventually brought lots of wonderful birds to listen to (and some to see), as we made our way across the veggie field, up the cow lane, over to the top of the horse pasture, and back down through the hayfield.

A little later, folks from outside of Nubi came for the “official” part of the morning walk and were treated to some excellent birdsong from warblers, a catbird, and more, some of which Dr. Kroodsma recorded and then played back for folks when we went back inside our Common House and he told us more about the amazing sound world of birds.

Here’s a link to a humorous “dawn chorus” video that Dr. Kroodsma showed the group when we were inside:
http://www.picture-this.org.uk/worksprojects/works/by-date/2007/dawn-chorus

Here’s a list of what I managed to hear or see that morning (at least the ones I could identify):

Canada Goose
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Brown Creeper
Winter Wren
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch

It was incredible. The trees and bushes were practically dripping with birds.

There were a lot of different kinds of fall warblers that I just couldn’t identify — I’m way out of practice, and they’re hard to get anyway. I do know there were many yellow-rumped warblers, at least a couple northern parulas, common yellowthroat, and palm warblers. There were big numbers of adolescent and adult cedar waxwings, and a bunch of gangly young robins (and adults). I briefly saw a grosbeak (the big beak unmistakable) and eventually figured out it was a first-year or female red-breasted grosbeak.

Also caught brief views of a yellow-bellied sapsucker, a bird I’ve seen only rarely anywhere and never before here at Nubi. And just after returning indoors, I looked out the window and saw an osprey soaring, then tucking its wings and heading southward. The sapsucker and osprey bring my Nubi list up to 85 species so far.

If only I could get some expert help identifying all those fall warblers (and sparrows), I’m sure the list would surpass 100 pretty quickly.

A couple evenings ago, Dori called to tell me she’d just heard an American Woodcock (aka “Timberdoodle”) in the neighborhood — she thought maybe it was in the direction of the hayfield. Then tonight as I walked back from dinner in the Common House and was approaching our house, I heard the woodcock’s distinctive nasal “peent” sounding remarkably nearby.

Following the sound, I headed up the path directly away from our house toward the river. And there, just 20 feet from the end of the path, was the little timberdoodle peenting away. Pretty soon he took off into the air, making his zany, twisting, twittering display flight, then came rushing back down to the ground to start all over again from the same spot.

I had to head inside for the kids’ bedtime, but keep your ears and eyes open at dusk in the coming days to catch this remarkable little bird doing his thing to find a mate.

For those interested, here’s a nice web page about the American Woodcock.

In the afternoon, we went for a snowshoe walk in the neighborhood woods and saw Wild Turkey tracks (pretty comical looking, really). And early this morning, Dori called to point out that mixed in with the Pine Siskins and American Goldfinches at her feeder are some Common Redpolls (despite the name, a not-so-common bird for me). Lots of wonderful winter bird activity! And spring is just around the corner….

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

Just past the pond, on the tractor path to the hayfield, at the brushy area for the power line cut, there’s a veritable bird party going on — more little flitting chipping creatures than a novice birder like myself can count. I saw and/or heard black-capped chickadee, common yellowthroat, black-and-white warbler, chestnut-sided warbler, black-throated green warbler, blue-headed vireo, a robin worming on the ground, catbirds mewing in the bushes, and blue jays squawking in the distance. In addition, there were certainly more types I wasn’t familiar with or didn’t see well enough to identify.

From there, I cut through the woods up to the hillside pasture, where — both mornings — I thought I heard a raven croaking in the distance, but couldn’t be sure. At the edge of the woods, I saw house wrens, female purple finches sunning themselves, a white-breasted nuthatch working a tree trunk, heard a woodpecker or two, saw multiple eastern phoebes flycatching, a turkey vulture soaring overhead.

Other birds of note from the past couple weeks include a belted kingfisher flying by the pond and a spotted sandpiper along its shore. Other folks here have told me of killdeer nesting in the veggie fields this spring and a bevy of wild turkey seen around and about numerous times.

I’m looking forward to the Saturday morning walk with a real birder who’ll help us find and identify even more.