I enjoyed a beautiful, sunny, cool morning at Grant Park, Sunday April 1st. It was my fourth time trying for the reported Carolina Wren, that has eluded me for a couple weeks. I was not disappointed this time! I got some really good looks at the bird as he moved about the trees singing. I enjoyed him and his wonderful song for about a half hour. My next stop was the feeding area. I had a couple of Fox Sparrows there, late Friday evening, just before sunset and was hoping they would still be around. The feeding area was hopping with birds, when I got there about 9:30! The Fox Sparrows were still there, although they didn’t come out in the open for very long. There must’ve been over 30 Dark-eyed Juncos, including two Oregon (1M & 1F) and one Cassiar subspecies. The amount of Song Sparrows was impressive too! Both nuthatches are still present, along with some siskins, a couple tree sparrows and all the usual backyard feeder birds you would expect. There was so much activity there, I stayed there for a few hours. The crows were being very loud and noisy, early on and kept coming down the to the ground to eat something. It was behind the downed tree though, and I never saw what it was. Towards the end of my day there, a group of crows found a Great Horned Owl in the pine trees and wouldn’t leave him alone. I’m guessing the nest is close by, because he was flying from pine tree to pine tree leading the crows away from the area. The only problem, the crows kept following and harassing him, squawking and circling around the tree tops. Finally, after about fifteen minutes and a half dozen trees, the crows stopped and it was silent. Here are a some of the photos from the great morning out, along with links to specific pages.
Carolina Wren – http://www.jmeyerphotography.net/photo-gallery/photo-gallery-2/carolina-wren/
Dark-eyed Junco – http://www.jmeyerphotography.net/photo-gallery/photo-gallery-2/dark-eyed-junco/
Fox Sparrow – http://www.jmeyerphotography.net/photo-gallery/photo-gallery-2/fox-sparrow/
Very nice series