Robert H. Long Nature Park

2009-08-14
Another "Long" Day! It was a Red-Headed Woodpecker and Sandpiper Day!

We walked around from 9:45-11:15 am, then retired to the picnic shelter where we set up the new scope. On arrival, we saw only Killdeer. Within the next hour and a half, three different sandpipers came in. It is just so cool to see the birds thru a scope!!! And, we did some "digiscoping". Learning, we are ...

We also had a great view and took pics of a muskrat who swam under the bridge just as we got there, then crawled out the other side right below us! Really cool!

Species list:

Red-Headed Woodpeckers (!) Our best day so far! We even saw two at the same time!
The woodpeckers sat on snags in the rear "drowned-log pond" near the metal bench. A couple of times they flew down onto the logs in the pond, but they were too far away to tell what they were doing - feeding presumably.

Mallards
Canada Geese
Great Egret
Double-Crested Cormorants
Wood Ducks (seemed like more than usual, but maybe they were hidden before)
Mute Swans
Cedar Waxwings
Robins
Cardinal
Red-Winged Blackbirds
Kingfishers
Spotted Sandpipers (one by bridge, another by picnic pavilion)
Mourning Doves
Ring-Billed Gulls (only 6 - but more than last time)
Barn Swallows
Eastern Kingbird (or what w/o white tail tip?) (pic to be posted...)
Starlings (rare)
Sparrow with spot on breast - is this a Savannah Sparrow with the notched tail and no obvious yellow, or a Song Sparrow, or what? On the beach by the picnic pavilion, we also saw:

Killdeer (lots)
Pectoral Sandpipers (2) (new !)
Least Sandpipers (2) (new !)