Sharp-shinned Hawk. Photo by Michael Sciortino.
The highlights of the walk on Saturday, October 28, at the Blue Ridge Center were sparrows (8 species) and the beautiful early morning fall sun highlighting several raptors. The walk, on Butterfly Alley and the Sweet Run Loop, went through a lot of nice meadow habitat with lots of seeds. As a result there were numerous mixed flocks of sparrows and while we succeeded in identifying many of them, we were unable to identify many that quickly disappeared into the high grasses and scrub. We did great looks at a Lincoln’s Sparrow, a FOS (for most of us) Dark-eyed Junco, Swamp Sparrows, and numerous Song and White-throated Sparrows. The early morning sun also lit up two very vocal Red-shouldered Hawks who were flying together in the sky as well as a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk who flew right over a couple of people’s heads. Several flocks of Cedar Waxwings flew back and forth between trees with vines full of berries and grapes and also posed for us in the beautiful fall light.
We also saw a late Monarch.
For a complete list of the birds see the eBird list below.
Joe Coleman & Jane Yocom
BRCES–Sawmill and Butterfly Alley
Oct 28, 2017
8:15 AM
Traveling
2.00 miles
160 Minutes
All birds reported? Yes
Comments: Submitted from eBird for iOS, version 1.5.4 Build 149
3 Canada Goose
2 Black Vulture
5 Turkey Vulture
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 Cooper’s Hawk
2 Red-shouldered Hawk
5 Red-bellied Woodpecker
2 Downy Woodpecker
5 Northern Flicker
2 Pileated Woodpecker
1 Eastern Phoebe
15 Blue Jay
8 American Crow
5 Carolina Chickadee
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
4 Carolina Wren
2 Golden-crowned Kinglet
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
7 Eastern Bluebird
9 American Robin
2 Gray Catbird
60 Cedar Waxwing
15 Chipping Sparrow
3 Field Sparrow
1 Dark-eyed Junco
15 White-throated Sparrow
16 Song Sparrow
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
2 Swamp Sparrow
1 Eastern Towhee
6 Northern Cardinal
1 Common Grackle
2 American Goldfinch
Number of Taxa: 33