Despite the gloomy weather we had a wonderful variety of
birds at our yard in Laurel, PG County today, including our
first-ever BLUE-WINGED WARBLER (male) and BLUE-GRAY
GNATCATCHER (surprisingly it's our first one of the latter
since moving in 2 summers ago). Those are yard birds #88
and 89. New migrants for the season included 2 male
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS, a male BALTIMORE ORIOLE, and 2 male
ORCHARD ORIOLES (one first-summer), as well as our first
GRAY CATBIRD and CHIMNEY SWIFTS of the year. Also an
unusual visitor (for us): EASTERN TOWHEE (female).
Lots of interesting behaviors seen today, including an
AMERICAN ROBIN attacking its reflection in my car side-view
mirrors, and the first-ever visit by an AMERICAN CROW to our
feeders (they hang around the neighborhood, and rarely enter
the yard itself; today one managed to snag some suet from a
new feeder we installed) -- three of these crows assembled
under the feeders until the grackles, jays, and mockingbirds
drove them off. Speaking of the mockingbirds, for some
reason they didn't much appreciate the grosbeaks. Dunno
why!
Here's the eBird summary, in ~12 hrs of observing (39
species):
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Mourning Dove 4
Chimney Swift 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 3
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Blue Jay 10
American Crow 3
Fish Crow 4
Carolina Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Carolina Wren 4
House Wren 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
American Robin 3
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 3
European Starling 5
Blue-winged Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 5
Eastern Towhee 1
Chipping Sparrow 4
Song Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 4
Northern Cardinal 5
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 2
Common Grackle 3
Brown-headed Cowbird 4
Orchard Oriole 2
Baltimore Oriole 1
House Finch 4
American Goldfinch 3
House Sparrow 6
D
--
Derek C. Richardson, Laurel, PG County, MD
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~dcr/Archives/Photos/birds.html |