Folks
I did my round of the bluebird boxes at the Piscataway (STP), Prince George's county, yesterday morning and had some nice birds. While cleaning the seven or so boxes I was able to add two new year species, Wood Duck and Tree Swallow. The STP is situated along the Piscataway Creek but not open to the public. The tide was out of the creek, and the many ponds in the STP had numerous ducks and gulls. The numbers below do not include the birds on the creek except the Common Mergansers. I did not do a careful count, but a good mix is represented.
Sort of in order I had:
Great Blue Heron - 2
Turkey Vulture - 4
Canada Goose - 120
Wood Duck - 10
Gadwall - 12
American Black Duck - 8
Mallards - 44
Northern Shoveler - 25
Green-winged Teal - 2
Ring-necked Duck - 70
Lesser Scaup - 40
Bufflehead - 30
Common Goldeneye - one female
Hooded Merganser - one female
Common Merganser - 35 - on the creek
Ruddy Duck - 12
Red-tailed Hawk
American Coot - one
Killdeer - 6
Wilson's Snipe - one
Bonaparte's Gull - 80 I looked for Little and Black-headed Gull w/ no success.
Ring-billed Gull - 120
Herring Gull - 15
Mourning Dove - 6
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 4
Northern Flicker - 2
Downy Woodpecker
Belted Kingfisher - 3
Eastern Phoebe - 2
Tree Swallow - 60
Carolina Chickadee - 9
Tufted Titmouse - 5
White-breasted Nuthatch - one
Carolina Wren - 4
Eastern Bluebird - two No sign of nest building yet. Egg date is March 12, and the one nest I found may have been from last season. I did not disturb this box. All the others were cleaned.
American Robin - 25 flyovers
Northern Mockingbird - one
Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warblers - 20
White-throated Sparrow - 6
Song Sparrow - 15
Dark-eyed Junco - 12
Red-winged Blackbird - 20
House Finch - 4
American Goldfinch - one
I will check back in a week or so to do a better count of everything.
The Purple Martin box was clean, and the two Eastern Screech Owl boxes were unoccupied. Maybe later.
Go atlasing.
George
Carol - please forward to Paul Nistico. My address book was eaten and I don't have it. Thanks. |