Nests

Over my lunch hour, I took my usual walk around the park. I had seen bluebirds for each of the past two mornings and heard some bluebird twittering from the north end of the park. Following the sound led me to a bluebird nest, with both parents bringing food to a nest cavity near the upper playground. Also in that area, I discovered a White-breasted Nuthatch nest cavity.

Since it's been a while since my last post, I'll just include a brief list of some of the notable species I've seen in the last couple of weeks (species I've never seen before marked with a *, species that i've not seen at powderhorn before marked with a +). Notice the relatively large number of flycatchers and unfortunately low numbers of warblers:

• black-crowned night-heron
• cooper's hawk
• spotted sandpiper
• chimney swift
• olive-sided flycatcher
• eastern wood-pewee+
• yellow-bellied flycatcher*
• least flycatcher
• great crested flycatcher
• blue-headed vireo*
• red-eyed vireo
• eastern bluebird
• swainson's thrush*
• orange-crowned warbler
• nashville warbler
• american redstart
• common yellowthroat
• lincoln's sparrow
• white-crowned sparrow+
• baltimore oriole+

A few more warblers

Well, a few other warblers besides yellow-rumped warblers are finally coming through the park. They're not particularly easy to see due to the amount of leaves that are already out, nor are they particularly numerous yet, but in the last couple of days I've seen yellow-rumped (obviously), orange-crowned, and palm warblers. This morning I saw a lone Northern (I think) waterthrush (also a warbler, though a rather drab one).

Besides warblers, I've been seeing the spotted sandpipers regularly, and this morning I saw my first white-throated sparrows of the year at the park -- at least 20 of them feeding on the hillside below the tennis courts.

Solitary Sandpiper

It came back after the craziness of May Day (which was wonderful, of course):

A new sandpiper

In a brief walk around the lake this morning, I noticed two small sandpipers. However, they weren't the Spotted Sandpipers I've been seeing for the last couple of days, they were Solitary Sandpipers -- another bird I hadn't yet seen at the park before. I also saw a few yellow-rumped warblers and a couple of ruby-crowned kinglets after having not seen them in over a week. It feels like the warbler wave is going to start hitting fairly soon.