Sunday, March 29, 2015

Objective : Pine warbler

Returning home about 4:30 after a weekend visiting my sister in southeast Pennsylvania , I made an attempt into Prospect for my favorite warbler.

After a scan of the lake still showing the COMMON MERGANSERS, the islands hold a pair of herons. Both Three Sisters and Duck Islands revealed 4 GREAT BLUE HERONS;an AMERICAN WIGEON pair and from the distance ,maybe 8 RING NECKED DUCKS along the shores of Duck Island.

Then onward to Binnen Bridge.This spot had the last report of Pine Warbler ,from Isabel Conte' s tweet when I got off the Staten Island Expressway. After some searching, I finally found my target, a bright PINE WARBLER at the entrance to the East Wood building. Soon that bird moved around, ending up in a mature Sugar Maple in the middle of the Lily Pool meadow just south of the East Wood Tunnel. But my bonus for not only a Pine but two birds! Sweet success!

I took a long while enjoying the PINE WARBLERS in the vicinity of the Sugar Maple spot. Both birds worked the woody back area, then above the path down from the tunnel. An interesting moment In the Sugar Maple occurred when a breeding plumage YELLOW BELLIED SAPSUCKER followed briefly one of the Pines. In setting sun, these birds were brighter to enjoy.

As Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz says: "There's no place like home"

Also noted, a number of EASTERN PHOEBES are seen and I found a pair of WOOD DUCK in the Upper Pool.A PIED BILLED GREBE remains in the Lake

PS. Pine warbler is not my first of year,since I had a number of them in Florida in January plus 7 other warbler species including Yellow throated. But a Brooklyn Pine Warbler  is a tradition.