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Eastern Bluebird Sialia sialis
(male) |
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Eastern Bluebird Sialia sialis
(female) |
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| Cedar Waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum |
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| Cedar Waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum |
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| Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus |
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| White-throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis |
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| American Robin Turdus migratorius |
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| Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina |
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| Cooper’s Hawk Accipiter cooperii |
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| Mallard Anas platyrhynchos |
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| Bloodroot Sanguinaria canadensis |
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| What used to be a wall of bushes and scrub |
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| A slope clumsily cleared of scrub (why?) |
Joey of the north was in town yesterday, and we popped over to the cem for an impromptu birding session. No shortage of White-throated Sparrows, especially around the feeders and on Mountain View. No warblers spotted, although I did hear a possible Yellow-rumped Warbler call, but it was hard to isolate within a riot of two dozen Ruby-crowned Kinglets twitching and singing through the cedars.
Joey was tripping out on two species that he hadn’t seen in ages, and that were showing well: Eastern Bluebird and Cedar Waxwing. Two very charismatic species, for sure.
It’s been a while since I’ve been in the cem, so it was my first look at some disquieting landscaping developments up on Mountain View. Behind ‘the circles,’ a large stretch of what used to be bushes and scrub, formerly great habitat for skulking birds, is now a new patch of grass, presumably destined for new plots. More concerning was the clumsy clearing of a nearby steep slope. All the scrub has been ripped away, with decent-sized chunks of trees also hacked out. Is this busy work? It seems that the only thing this will accomplish is the destabilization and erosion of the slope in a heavy rain event. Rows of sumac have also been cleared in some areas.
We logged 25 species in a couple of hours.
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