cadamon's Journal

I went to Oakledge Park to birdwatch around noon to two on Wednesday, April 20th. It was a very windy day, upper 50s maybe into the 60s and sunny. Immediately upon arriving I was greeted by a flock of about 20 grackles in hedges right next to the parking lot, and a bunch of gulls were flying overhead. I walked around the edges of the woods around the park, and found a path to go towards the water, assuming the lake would be a good place to spot birds. When I got to the lakeside, there were no birds in sight at all over the water, so I turned back into the woods. They were teeming with activity, and over the course of a walk along a path that paralleled the lake I saw a large number of song birds, particularly robins all over both the ground and bushes. The path came back out to an area where I could see the lake, and two mergansers were flying very quickly, just above the lake level.

On the afternoon of February 19th, I walked to a field off of quarry hill road that usually is active with songbirds. It was about 35 degrees, cloudy and breezy. The field was not at all lively. After walking around it for a about 45 minutes and only observing one Black-capped Chickadee sitting in a shrub in the field and nothing else, I began to walk to a new location. Shortly after leaving the meadow, something caused a bunch of birds to stir from the woods to the side of the road. Five American Crows flew over, moving around relatively playfully not seeming to have been scared out of the woods. Two American Robins also flew across slightly farther ahead, chasing each other very playfully. After this was when I made the most interesting observation. I saw a very large gull fly overhead. It's hard to say much about it, as it was relatively high and moving quickly enough that I could not manage to get a good look at it through my binoculars. It looked a very dark grey on the back as it turned a distance away, and larger than a typical Ring-billed Gull, leading me to believe it might have been a Great Black-backed Gull, but it could have possibly just been a relatively large bird of another species that looked darker because of the lighting.

I went for a birding walk in centennial woods on Friday, February 2nd. It was between 25 and 30 degrees, mostly sunny with a few clouds, and there was an on and off strong breeze, making it feel much colder than it was. No birds at all were observed (either seen or heard) until making it deeper into the woods. Once I got into the coniferous part of the forest, birds were occasionally heard, but over the creaking of trees in the wind they were difficult to ID by sound, and they were all too far away to see.

Finally after a little ways into the coniferous forests, I began to see and hear many more birds. I quickly realized this was because there was a bird feeder around. In this area I sat for a little while observing. I heard many Black-capped Chickadees, and saw even more, I believe about ten, although its always hard to determine whether I was seeing the same bird twice or not. I also saw in that location a Downy Woodpecker on a small sapling near me, and a bird I believe was an American Goldfinch flash by in the distance. There was one more bird I heard in that location, but could not find. It was some sort of woodpecker that I heard pecking on a tree. The noise it made was heavier than the Downy woodpecker near me, although I'm unsure if this was because it was a different species or because it was pecking a different type of tree. I tried to locate the source of the sound, but was unable to, and the pecking eventually stopped. On my way out of the woods, as I exited the path onto Grove St. I saw a Pileated Woodpecker fly from over my head, across the street, and away.