At the start, I thought of renaming this the "First Annual Mosquito Walk." Two of our braver walkers, Christine and Peter, thought they could make it without spraying insect repellent on their skin. Boy, were they wrong. Once we got into the woods we were swarmed. Luckily, Aihua came to the rescue and produced some repellent from his backpack.
Actually the birding began in the Rodman's Neck parking lot where we spotted an Orchard Oriole and some Common Grackles. There were also several American Robins and a Mourning Dove or two. The walk into the woods across the circle was not very productive. We all heard a Red-bellied Woodpecker, but only one or two of us got to see it. The mosquitoes got the best of us so we walked down and searched the area around Turtle Cove. There we saw a vocalizing Song Sparrow. Luckily, the secretive Marsh Wren popped up more than once and we all had some good looks. There were several Red-winged Blackbirds and we stopped for a minute or two to study a nearby female for a while. There were fly-overs of Great Egrets and an Osprey or two. Strangely, even at low tide, there were few birds in the mud. On our way back to the parking lot at Rodman's Neck we had some excellent looks at a Cedar Waxwing or two.
We drove to the Bartow-Pell Mansion parking lot. From there we walked to the Split Rock Golf course parking lot and put the spotting scope on an Osprey nest. After the oohs and aahs, we stopped by a small trickle of a stream near the NY Central trestle. There was a male Orchard Oriole and a male Baltimore Oriole perched on a nearby branch. An Orchard Oriole fledgeling was testing its wings in a nearby tangle of vines. The Orioles chased each other back and forth for a while. We also saw a Yellow Warbler an American Goldfinch and a Common Yellowthroat near the water. We really had some long and excellent looks at all of these birds. We checked out nesting Barn Swallows and took a short walk behind Bartow-Pell Mansion, but the walk ended as it had begun- we were chased out by the mosquitoes. The morning went quickly and we saw more birds than I had predicted. In addition, we had some very satisfying looks at them.
This Marsh Wren popped up long enough for us to get a good look.
Here we are, left to right, Jack, Christine, Celia, Peter, Fei and Aihua.
Christine, Aihua and Fei check out the herb garden at Bartow-Pell
Species Account
Red- bellied Woodpecker
Orchard Oriole
Common Grackle
Osprey
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Marsh Wren
Mallard
Baltimore Oriole
Cedar waxwing
Catbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
Mockingbird
Barn Swallow
American Goldfinch
Common Yellowthroat
Great Egret
Yellow Warbler
American Robin
