Sunny, mild and breezy
A beautiful day for now, but the forecast is for showers to be developing later this afternoon, so we better get out and see if we can find a suitable subject. Our choice of places closest to home always includes the Outdoor Discovery Center of the Hudson Highland Nature Museum in Cornwall. Those of us who have birded this area for some time now still can’t break the habit of calling it by its former name, Kenridge Farm.
Our first find of the day were a couple of sparrows…..the easily found Song sparrow and the not as common Field sparrow. Sparrows can be a bit tough to properly identify, but the songs of these two little brown jobs leaves little doubt. The Song sparrow starts of with three long sweet notes which always reminds me of an opera singer warming up with “Mi, Mi, Mi.” And when you are lucky enough to catch the bird in the act, he has his head thrown back to broadcast his voice…perhaps also a bit like the operatic tenor. This sparrow also has a dark spot right over its heart, and again this reminds me of the Song sparrow because I believe it is singing from the heart!
The second sparrow, is different in that the breast is plain, not streaked and without the dark spot in the middle of the breast. The song of this sparrow starts off slowly and then picks up speed. The guide books refer to the song as reminiscent of a dropped ping pong ball which quickens its tapping on the table as it eventually comes to rest.
Two other handsome birds rounded out the best of the rest, today. The first was the Cedar waxwing, picking berries from one of the shrubs along the road. This bird never seems to have a feather out of place…..perfectly groomed and attired.
The last photo goes to the Green heron. This bird is known to breed here and it is always a pleasure to see the bird at Kenridge. Here, a Great blue heron flew over head and startled the green into a sudden flight.
There is indeed always something to see and be entertained by at “Kenridge”.
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