A warm (80), overcast
day with periods of rain
Pretty much a carbon copy of
yesterday’s weather except that today is about 10 degrees warmer. In trying to keep tabs on what is going
on at Kenridge Farm, the Outdoor Discovery Center of the Hudson Highlands
Nature Museum in Cornwall, I try to visit several times each month and get a
grasp on any changes in the avian cast of characters which are frequenting this
lovely refuge. Our birding group,
the Edgar A. Mearns Club, has been keeping records over the course of the past
year and a bird of interest to me today, the Belted kingfisher, has only been
recorded by our group in September of last year and then again last month. Today’s sighting may well be that same
bird, but regardless, he is here again and that’s good news.
The other major birds
regarding numbers are the Song sparrows.
They were present in large numbers and throughout the refuge. Soon, we expect to see their numbers
decline as the seasons change and winter takes hold. Then, it will be the White-throated sparrows that will take
top billing. That is several
months off, however, and right now, it’s the Songs that control the meadows.
 |
| Chicory |
Another sign of fall that will
not last too much longer are the many wildflowers, many of which we have
featured in this blog over the past several weeks. The Chicory and Asters that were so prevalent only a couple
of weeks ago are starting to wane just as the leaves are beginning to change their
colors in earnest and actually many are actually beginning to fall.
We’ll have a club outing here
next week to officially count the species that are still here or that have
moved in for the winter. It’s
always interesting to watch the evolution brought on by the waning hours of
daylight and the cooler temperatures that follow. Watch for our results on next Wednesday’s blog.
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