It was mild and clear after a couple of days raining. We had the entire afternoon free, so we decided to go to Riverport. We have not birded for several months and had not been to Riverport in a long time. There was a lot of new construction there. A new power plant and additions to the huge intermodel transportation hub. Electrolux and Mitsubishi have moved in. We birded in the places in between these places.
We saw a Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias) having lunch on the banks of the Nonconnah Creek. In the trees along Plant Road, we saw the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia Sialis) and the Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Setophaga Coronata). Robert spotted a healthy brown Coyote walking across the field.
There are several little ponds on the left side of the road. In those ponds were Gadwall (Anas Strepera), Common Mergansers (Mergus Merganser) and Ring Necked Ducks (Aythya Collaris). As I was birdwatching, Robert spotted a Beaver in one of the ponds. The Beaver did not seem at all bothered by the ducks and just went about his business. In the large tailing pond on the right side of the road, we found gulls hunkered down against the wind, and a single Willet (Tringa Semipalmata) nibbling things in the shallow water. We later voted to make the Willet our Bird of the Day.
In the open fields further down the road were American Kestrels (Falco Sparverius), Red Tailed Hawks (Buteo Jamaicensis) and a beautiful Northern Harrier (Circus Cyaneus). Along the newly paved part of the road that in the past had been only a dirt road into the woods, we found a “honey pot”. We saw a Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus Sandwichensis) sitting on the third wire of a barbed wire fence along with a White Throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia Albicollis). On the edge of the woods we saw a regular winter visitor to this area, a Dark Eyed Slate Colored Junco (Junco Hyemalis). The male is predominantly black and the female is brown and beige.
Robert and Berry
Photos courtesy of wikipedia
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