My Big Month - Day 9

"Unexpected" would be the word to describe my walk around the park this evening after work. After beautiful weather earlier in the week, it appears we are on the downhill portion of our ongoing weather-roller-coaster this spring. With the temperature at only 46 degrees and strong winds, I actually wore my winter hat this evening! I also had to scour my entire vehicle to find a pair of gloves too. So with such crummy conditions, I was truly not expecting to see much tonight but I was entirely wrong about that. There were many highlights of the evening -some of which I'll put on my flickr page as I'm trying to keep these daily posts short and manageable. The first was seeing a pair of male Baltimore Orioles fighting over territory. Another was seeing an unidentified Warbler -which I now know was a Wilson's Warbler (very first for me) and still another was seeing a Sora up close and out in the open! Oh, I also saw hundreds of White-throated Sparrows who were singing constantly as well.

The one bird I want to post here tonight however is a Warbler that I've only seen once before. Because I've been watching for birds more on the ground than in the trees, I was able to spot this Ovenbird on the north end of the park. I desperately wanted a better photo and so I stalked him through the woods as best I could. That proved to be extremely challenging because every time I got too close for comfort, he quickly doubled the distance between us again. Eventually I must have been making too much noise and he flew up into a tree some distance ahead of me. At least he was out in the open here and not hidden by all the ground cover.

Total species seen today: Ovenbird, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Palm Warbler, Black and White Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, Red-winged Blackbird, American Crow, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, Mourning Dove, Black-capped Chickadee, Brown Thrasher, Wild Turkey, Ring-necked Pheasant, Great Blue Heron, Mallard, American Coot, Canada Goose, White-throated Sparrow, American Tree Sparrow, American Robin and Sora.

Conditions: 46 degrees, overcast and very windy.

My Big Month - Day 8

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.

My Big Month - Day 7

My visit to Palmer Lake Park today had to be waaay earlier in the day than I would have cared for. But with an 8 to 5 job, and numerous appointments after work, I knew there were going to be days I would have to make adjustments in order to continue on my Big Month. So this morning I found myself at the park around 5:45am. I was kind of looking forward to it after how busy the park was yesterday, but wouldn't you know it, I got "on-your-left-ed" at 5:50 in the morning!!! So I decided to stick to the wood chip trails as much as possible. I wasn't quite prepared for just how dark outside it is yet at this time and though I was seeing plenty of birds, my photos just weren't turning out. I also had to keep up a fairly swift pace in order to get to work on time so I felt a little rushed. However I ended up have a great walk as I got to see both a Mink and a Coyote within just seconds of one another. I scared up both of them right near the railroad tie overlook on the south side and the Coyote ran off into the fog still hanging over the cattails. I got a few half-decent photos that I'll put on my flickr page because I want to keep "My Big Month" about birds only.

My pick for today is a Common Grackle that I saw near the end of my walk. It wasn't quite the most interesting species I saw but honestly it was one of the only bird photos that turned out at all! I've actually been watching Grackles for some time, trying to capture their iridescent colors and I think this one does just that. I like the way it's upper wings appear almost purple. A couple other noteworthy items for the day; I heard (and barely saw) my first Yellow Warbler of the season. And I also spotted my first Baltimore Oriole of the season (better photo's pending!) STILL NO SIGN OF BLUEBIRDS YET!

Total species seen today: Common Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Palm Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Cooper's Hawk, Great Blue Heron, American Tree Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Blue-winged Teal, Wood Duck, Mallard, Canada Goose, Wild Turkey and Baltimore Oriole.

Conditions: 46 degrees and EARLY! (Early morning fog against sunrise was beautiful)

My Big Month - Day 6

I was so crabby after work today that I hardly even wanted to go to the park. I didn't even want to be anywhere -if that makes sense. I kept telling myself that I set this goal for a reason and that I might not fully realize what that reason is just yet. I definitely needed to be alone and going to the park almost always helps that. However it was quite busy with bikers and joggers this evening due to the outstanding weather. When one person tried to engage me in conversation it took all of my effort not to just walk away. Well enough about that. I did end up spotting a fair amount of bird species tonight but I don't have much daylight left for photos when I arrive after work at 6:00pm. Again I saw hundreds of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Palm Warblers and Kinglets but the absolute highlight of my evening was getting to watch and photograph a Black and White Warbler.

I'd walked into middle just a little ways on the north side and staked out a place that seemed like a good hot spot and it totally paid off. The Black & White Warbler flew in out of nowhere and proceeded to bounce around inside this large clump of Willow and other shrubs in search of food. I was determined to get a better photo of this beautifully patterned bird and it took close to 50 shots in order to come out with this one. I believe this one is a male.

Total species seen today: Black and White Warbler, Palm Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, White-throated Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, Brown Thrasher, Northern Cardinal, American Coot, Mallard, Wood Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Great Blue Heron, Ring-necked Pheasant, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woopecker, Mourning Dove, American Robin and Canada Goose.

Conditions: 73 degrees, mostly sunny and no wind.