Sunny, NW breeze, and
cool (63)
It’s feeling more and more
like fall as the days are growing shorter and the temperatures are slowly
falling. Nights can see cool temps
of 45 and lower and even the days are consistently in the mid-60s to low
70s. After a brief 9 hole round
this morning, I took the short drive over to Kenridge Farm and decided to
simply concentrate on the area around the first body of water known as Goose
Pond.
We are getting into some good
warbler movement now that the season has changed and today I was quite happy to
be greeted by a female Common yellowthroat under the large tree at the corner
of the pond.
I photographed the bird as it
hopped from branch to branch in the brush below the tree. In following the bird, I happened to
see another bird come into my field of view. From the tail bobbing, I surmised that it was a Palm
warbler.
As I shot this bird, a third,
also bobbing its tail appeared.
This was no warbler, however, and when I finally got it into my view
finder, I discovered that it was a Carolina wren.
Soon, there was more movement
in the same bushes below the tree.
This was much plainer in coloration, however, but it too was bobbing the
tail and fluttering its wings. It
had to be a Song sparrow, a young bird who felt the security of the deep cover
of the brush.
Finally, while all this was
going on, I noticed another bird flying in off to the right. A beautifully plumaged Green heron came
in for a landing on a log that lies close to the shore of the pond. It sat quietly, watching the surface of
the water for any movement indicative of a morsel-in-the-making. As I photographed the bird, it suddenly
shuttered and fluffed out its feathers, either drying or cooling itself and
creating a “bad hair day” image for the camera. No human would ever allow me to publish such an image of
itself, but this poor bird has now one to speak up for it, and so it is
included as today’s shot of the day.
Finally, I stopped off at home
and picked up Sharon to take a run up to Bear Mountain to see if there was any
action. With the northwest winds
prevailing, there was next to no action until our friend Joe noticed movement
in the ailanthus tree below us. A
pair of Black-throated green warblers appeared on the scene and with a bit of
patience and a lot of help from editing software, I was able to get a shot good
enough for documentary purposes.
It’s great to see that slowly
but surely, the changing of the seasons has brought about some new faces in the
groups of birds that are showing up.
It won’t be all that long before the winter finches and their associates
begin to show up Always something
new to look forward to.
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