As part of my "Big Month" of May, I wanted to set aside one day and basically bird all day at the park. So I arrived shortly after 8am today, took a lunch break at home and then went back for the afternoon. My other goal for the day was to see at least 40 species of birds, which on a nice day like today should be very do-able. One of my first sightings of the day was a Warbling Vireo, a bird that I've come to learn mostly by it's song, but rarely via sightings.
Today that changed however and I got long looks at this fairly drab looking bird with the amazingly complicated song. I watched this bird longer than any other bird today and probably spent over an hour trying to catch an unobstructed view. In the end I would up with some photos I was pretty happy with including this one. Another bird I spent a fair amount of time with today was this beautiful and semi-cooperative American Redstart. This Warbler is known for being a tough one to photograph as they are normally hyperactive and blocked by foliage. This one however sat out in the open on a branch and just sung his heart out for a long time.
I had ample photo opportunities and I kept telling myself what a rare occasion this was. He was still a challenge to capture well due to the black eye on top of black plumage, but I did my best and I have a few keepers that are better than most of my older attempts. The next bird pictured here is another Warbler, a male Common Yellowthroat that really stood out against the clear blue sky.
He bounced around in a young Willow tree for quite some time but he kept moving ever upward, giving me the best looks from underneath. After lunch break I arrived back on the east side of the park to find a Green Heron posing nicely for me at the little pond just south of the parking lot.
I knew it would be a short lived view so I took as many photos as I could before he left his perch. It turned out to be one of the nicer Green Heron photos I've taken! I saw a heck of a lot more birds –which I'll spell out at the end, but I spotted one species that until today I had never recorded in the park. It was quite a ways away but with my binoculars I deduced that it was an Olive-sided Flycatcher! And come to think about it, I remember seeing a similar shaped bird in the past in the same area that I couldn't identify –so maybe, just maybe I had seen one before. But at the time I likely didn't know what it was.
But now I knew just enough to ID this bird and quite excited by the find! So here is my final list of species seen today, 41 species total! (listed in the order that I could remember them later)
- Song Sparrow
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Common Grackle
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Pileated Woodpecker (Saw 2 together, possibly juveniles)
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Tree Swallow
- Barn Swallow
- House Wren
- Northern Cardinal
- Blue Jay
- Rose-breasted Grosbeak
- Scarlet Tanager (2 adult males!)
- Baltimore Oriole
- American Goldfinch
- Sandhill Crane (heard only)
- Least Flycatcher
- Great Crested Flycatcher
- Mourning Dove
- Indigo Bunting
- Yellow Warbler
- American Redstart
- Common Yellowthroat
- Tennessee Warbler
- Northern Waterthrush
- Magnolia Warbler
- Swainson's Thrush
- Canada Goose
- Mallard
- Wood Duck
- Gray Catbird
- White-crowned Sparrow
- American Robin
- Great Blue Heron
- Green Heron
- American Crow
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Warbling Vireo
- Olive-sided Flycatcher
- Black-capped Chickadee
- House Sparrow
Today that changed however and I got long looks at this fairly drab looking bird with the amazingly complicated song. I watched this bird longer than any other bird today and probably spent over an hour trying to catch an unobstructed view. In the end I would up with some photos I was pretty happy with including this one. Another bird I spent a fair amount of time with today was this beautiful and semi-cooperative American Redstart. This Warbler is known for being a tough one to photograph as they are normally hyperactive and blocked by foliage. This one however sat out in the open on a branch and just sung his heart out for a long time. 
I had ample photo opportunities and I kept telling myself what a rare occasion this was. He was still a challenge to capture well due to the black eye on top of black plumage, but I did my best and I have a few keepers that are better than most of my older attempts. The next bird pictured here is another Warbler, a male Common Yellowthroat that really stood out against the clear blue sky. 
He bounced around in a young Willow tree for quite some time but he kept moving ever upward, giving me the best looks from underneath. After lunch break I arrived back on the east side of the park to find a Green Heron posing nicely for me at the little pond just south of the parking lot. 
I knew it would be a short lived view so I took as many photos as I could before he left his perch. It turned out to be one of the nicer Green Heron photos I've taken! I saw a heck of a lot more birds –which I'll spell out at the end, but I spotted one species that until today I had never recorded in the park. It was quite a ways away but with my binoculars I deduced that it was an Olive-sided Flycatcher! And come to think about it, I remember seeing a similar shaped bird in the past in the same area that I couldn't identify –so maybe, just maybe I had seen one before. But at the time I likely didn't know what it was. 
But now I knew just enough to ID this bird and quite excited by the find! So here is my final list of species seen today, 41 species total! (listed in the order that I could remember them later)
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