Well I'm into the second week of my "Big Month" now and I'm quite happy that I've been able to get to Palmer Lake Park every day so far. After visiting at 6am yesterday, it actually felt like a long time in between my 6pm visit this evening. I saw maybe only 5 or 6 Yellow-rumped Warblers today as opposed to hundreds just days ago. I'm afraid they might not be sticking around too much longer. I am continuing however to see lots of Palm Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Over all though it was on the quiet side as a rain storm was approaching as I hiked around. There were two highlights of my visit tonight. One was seeing my first Green Heron of the season. He was running on the ground along the banks of a little pond on the east side. Then later when I was hiking through the woods on the northwest side, I saw a bird land up ahead of me in some very thick Buckthorn trees and it did not look familiar at all. It looked like a Blackbird of some kind but with a big white patch on it's back. As I peered through my binoculars I could hardly believe that I was seeing a Rose-breasted Grosbeak! I've never ever seen one this early in the season before -and I typically think of them as Summer visitors to the park. Of course in the thick Buckthorn I did not get a great photo but hopefully I will see him again soon. Around this time it had started sprinkling and only a short time later it was full on raining.
I had to put a plastic bag around my camera and that more or less ended my photography session. But almost right before I got to my vehicle I spotted a pair of Northern Shovelers! I had only seen Shovelers way out in the lake this year and never really got an opportunity to photograph one. So I pulled the plastic bag off my camera, slipped in between some willows and grabbed a few photos anyway. It was also getting dark out by now so I didn't end up with a great photo here but I was happy to see that Shovelers will still around the park. It was also neat to see the female up close as well.
Total species seen today: Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, Wood Duck, Mallard, American Coot, Canada Goose, Blue Jay, American Crow, Brown-headed Cowbird, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Green Heron, Great Blue Heron, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Palm Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Song Sparrow, American Tree Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Mourning Dove, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Northern Cardinal, Sandhill Crane and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
Conditions: 68 degrees, breezy, stormy skies and raining at the end.
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