Fwd: Prospect Park Club Walk Report: Saturday, December 2nd 2017

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Sean Zimmer" <seankzimmer@gmail.com>
Date: Dec 2, 2017 8:58 PM
Subject: Prospect Park Club Walk Report: Saturday, December 2nd 2017
To: "Peter Dorosh" <prosbird@gmail.com>
Cc:

Hi Peter,

Overall a very quiet morning in the park, with unusually low bird activity. Even the feeders were unoccupied when we went by! Despite this, our very small group of 4 managed to enjoy the clear weather and make some good sightings. We got some very good long looks at perching Red-Tailed Hawks at a few different locations, allowing us to study the differences between juvenile and adult birds. Lexy had the sharpest eye of the day, picking out a perched Cooper's Hawk through some dense branches near the Upper Pool. We found a second perched Cooper's while patrolling the southern shore of the Lake. A pair of Carolina Wrens practically dive-bombed us as we left the Vale, and this species was a first-time sighting for one of our participants and his son. My personal favorite sighting was near the end of our walk, when a visit to the Butterfly Meadow on Lookout Hill turned up 3 Fox Sparrows, one of my favorite winter species.

Many thanks to our small but enthusiastic group!

Full list below; 28 species in total.

Best,

Sean

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Blue Jay

European Starling

American Robin

House Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Mourning Dove

Red-tailed Hawk

Cooper's hawk

1 unidentified raptor species; fast flyover of Vale.

Carolina Wren

Northern Mockingbird

House Finch

Mallard

Canada Goose

Northern Shoveler

Pie-billed Grebe

Ruddy Duck

Wood Duck

American Coot

Great Blue Heron

White-throated Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Fox Sparrow

Ring-billed Gull

Herring Gull