Day 287: October 13th – Not so common birds today

Sunny, cold (30s) calm day

       Back to Benedict Farm in Montgomery today with the Mearns Bird Club to see if we could pick up any new sparrows or other “winter birds”.  The day was quite successful with not only plenty of sparrows but also a few birds that we don’t see that often in these parts…..at least at this time of year.

       Regarding the sparrows, we did manage to pick up a couple of nice Lincoln’s sparrows which our Orange County Check List considers to be “Uncommon” in autumn.  According to the key at the beginning of this check list, “uncommon” means not easily found in the proper habitat”.  Well, we were definitely in the “proper habitat” today, and we did find this fine looking specimen.

       Next on the list of our not so common species was a Bobolink.  This bird also earns the classification of “U” in the checklist in Spring, Summer, and Fall and is most uncommon in late fall when they should be moving out of the area.  The bobolink has a complete change of wardrobe as we move into the fall and looks nothing like he does in summer.  So when this bird showed up today, he was an “automatic” as far as inclusion into today’s blog.

       The Rusty blackbird is another bird which is uncommon in autumn and rare in winter.  As far as this birder is concerned, the rusty is even more uncommon than the others we found today.  It’s white iris sets it apart from other blackbirds and is always a real plus to see on any of our outings.

       We also had a few other species of uncommon nature that I was not able to capture on film, but are worthy of note.  The White-crowned sparrow is a sure sign of impending winter and we did in fact have several sightings of this handsome sparrow.  From a distance too great for the 400mm lens I was using but easily identifiable through the 10X bins, we had several views of Eastern meadowlarks, a nice find for this late in the year.  Finally, we had a number of Pine siskins which were featured earlier this week in the Naturally Digital Blog pages.  All of the folks in today’s birding group agreed that this has been a banner year for the siskins regarding how early they have shown up and how many have made the appearance.

       And so, the ensemble continues to change, almost on a daily basis.  Late summer is considered to be the “doldrums” of birding in the northeast, but mid to late fall more than makes up for it.  We have plenty more in store for us in the upcoming months, so stay tuned!