Participants: 12
Bird Species:
Everyone showed on time up at the appointed place at the end of the large parking lot at Rye Playland. It was a stunningly beautiful morning. There had been a red sunrise an hour earlier and everything was still aglow. The temperature was slightly above freezing and the sun was warming things up rapidly. The water was flat and still, but we soon noticed there were very few birds.
We perused the Sound and the lake and had to work hard to come up with most of the usual birds. It was the same situation at the nature center feeders and during our walk in the woods and around the lake. We left for the Marshlands area at about 11. It was a bit livelier there with a good array of woodpeckers and feeder birds. Unfortunately, the Wild Turkeys were not in attendance.
Tom inquired if there was an interest in driving to Sherwood Island Park in Connecticut to try and find the Ash-throated Flycatcher and the Dickcissel that had been reported there, and everyone showed an interest. It was only a half hour straight up I-95. We all arrived there without incidence. The two birds were there, just as reported and we were all excited about watching them and studying the field marks of these vagrant birds. Thanks to Tom’s observational skills, we came up with a total bird count for the day of 55 species.
