I had a nice hike around Lake Needwood this morning. Of note were a
Great Egret still residing in the pond north of Needwood Road, a male
Bufflehead (my first of the season) in the water near the island, two
Fox Sparrows in the brush near the pond below Needwood Mansion, and
what I believe were 11 Rusty Blackbirds flipping leaves in the mudflat
near the NW shore of the lake.
Having seen Rusty Blackbirds only once before I'm a little tentative
about this ID. The apparent Rusty males had a slate gray body and a
brownish mantle (depending on their angle in the sun light). They
reminded me of cowbirds except they were larger in size and their
beaks were definitely not stout but longer and narrower. However, I
did not see flecks of brown on their sides. While I don't have a good
recollection of their eyes, I believe some of the iris could be
distinguished. I welcome any input about this ID and whether they
might have been different birds.
The Yellowlegs were nearby on the mudflats. I thought they were Lesser
but couldn't be sure.
Number of species: 39
Canada Goose 400
Mallard 16
Bufflehead 1
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 2
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Killdeer 13
Greater/Lesser Yellowlegs 5
Mourning Dove 3
Barred Owl 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 4
Downy Woodpecker 6
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 2
Pileated Woodpecker 3
Eastern Phoebe 1
Blue Jay 10
American Crow 25
Fish Crow 20
crow sp. 170
Carolina Chickadee 9
Tufted Titmouse 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 7
Carolina Wren 3
Winter Wren 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
Eastern Bluebird 7
American Robin 8
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 60
Eastern Towhee 1
Fox Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 15
White-throated Sparrow 20
Dark-eyed Junco 17
Northern Cardinal 5
Rusty Blackbird 11
American Goldfinch 15
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org) |