Hello All,
My Sunday morning rounds at the farm began slowly. We had the usual suspects around the feeder including the White-Breasted Nuthatch that continues. A nice addition was a visit from a male Hairy Woodpecker. A walk around the farm was extremely slow with a pitiful 7 species total. It was not until I cruised around the area roads that I found something interesting. On Horseshoe Rd (DE), I found the mixed bluebird/goldfinch/sparrow flock at the west end of the hedgerow along the RR. It was less numerous than last week, but still had 1 Chipping, 4 Field, 1 Savannah and small numbers of Song and WT Sparrows. The bluebirds and goldfinch departed almost as soon as I had stopped. Further up the road, the reliable Winter Wren was present at the stream crossing. On Oak Grove Rd (MD), a flock of 15 Tundra Swan with 10 Snow Geese interspersed among them flew by. I do not recall ever seeing those 2 species flying together in formation. On the south end of N. Oak Grove Rd at the small woods by the chicken house (DE), I ran into the bluebird/goldfinch flock again. I let the owl tape play while I walked up the road investigating birds at the corner of the woods. The mixed flock went by me and collected around the tape. When I gave up on finding a tapping woodpecker and checked the group, I found 6 Bluebirds, 24 Goldfinch and 1 PINE SISKIN. The other interesting things was an abundance of Robins everywhere. The total count was 1100 Robins.
On Monday 1/17, we had about 3/4" of snow first thing in the morning. We decided to search some local fields, but by the time we got out of the house between noon and 1 PM, much of the snow had disappeared despite temps in the upper 20's. The search found a grand total of 3 Horned Larks. A check of Concord Pond found 11 PB Grebe, 4 GW Teal, 6 Amer. Wigeon, Mallard, Black Duck, Canada Geese, and hundreds of Ring-Necked Ducks. I could only see a portion of the flock from the boat ramp and thought better of stopping on the dam since it is a "No Stopping, Standing of Parking" area and there was a police officer sitting at the far end. I would estimate the Ring-Neck flock to be greater than the 785 counted on the CBC. Cold temps this week will likely produce a freeze-out and that often brings something interesting such as Common Merganser in to the pond.
Good Birding,
Glen Lovelace III
Seaford, DE |