It has been too long since I took part in a a monthly Mead Garden bird count. After my nice birding encounter yesterday and seeing a calendar reminder I figured it was time to get back there and help. After all, we just got our birding checklist printed this year after years of collecting data on the monthly count for the past 6 years.
I blame the kids and their Scout events.
I got there at 7. My calendar program had it listed to start then but it turned out to be starting at 8. Fine. I can walk around and keep myself occupied. Not 15 minutes into exploring as the sun began to rise was the discovery of a rumored Prothonotary Warbler preening in some plants.
Lighting was bad but there was no doubt. The bird soon moved along toward the creek and I explored some more. Soon, I met a jogger by the creek who mentioned that a Barred Owl was seen on the ground upstream.
I headed that way but did not find it. On the way back, however, it was back there and flew up into the cypress. We chatted for a while.
Once the main birding group assembled and began searching for whatever we could find, we all relocated the Prothonotary. Everyone got good looks and then moved on. Paul Hueber and I were trying to nail down a few more IDs before catching up and I rediscovered the Prothonotary feeding over the creek. The early sunlight was still not great for photos for me but didn't stop me from trying to grab as many images as possible.
O.K. History lesson, as promised. The Prothonotary Warbler was "named after officials in the Roman Catholic Church (originally a "principal clerk of a court") known as the protonotarii, who wore golden robes".
A beautiful little bird. Something we don't see in Mead often. If ever before.
I checked back later in the morning to try and relocate it but failed to do so. At least we had a nice stretch of time with it in our presence.
As the group headed off toward Pennsylvania Ave, I detoured onto the crumbling boardwalk alone and went in search of anything new. The only thing out there besides more Cardinals and wrens was Greg. Greg is a Great Egret that frequents this portion of the river and marsh. For some reason he accepted me walking up to him and at times refused to give up the boardwalk to my advance. I love that.
Back in the oaks toward the parking lot, the group found a nice Red-shouldered Hawk. It was looking for something on the ground for a while and then appeared to have found something when we turned our heads. We could not determine exactly what it was eating.
This was a really nice specimen. It soon flew off and as the rain moved in, we ended our count. Great to hang out with old friends again. Not that you are all old. ;-)
The months should bring in more surprises soon. Tomorrow we open mist nets before dawn.
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