Other sights on the Wednesday walk

Wednesday Birdwalk, Sept. 30th

Our Wednesday lunchtime birdwalk was a small, but enthusiastic group: Nick, Becky and Sue. Birds for the outing were also few! A cool wind seemed to keep bird activity down, but we took a short walk along the Oyster River. We called in a small flock of Black-capped Chickadees and heard and observed an altercation between two Eastern Phoebes. One Herring Gull flew overhead, and we had the resident flock of Wild Turkeys and Canada Geese as we drove back to work.
In addition to the birds, Becky found a beautiful cicada clinging to vegetation on the ground.

Monday Sept. 28th

I ate lunch out in the courtyard in A21, and noticed quite a bit of bird activity - more than the usual few sparrows and mourning doves. Went back to the office for my binoculars and came up with this list:

Mourning Doves

Starlings

House Sparrows

Song Sparrows

White-throated Sparrows

American Robin

Eastern Phoebes

and

Scarlet Tanagers

The tanagers were, obviously, the gift of the day. At first I saw a yellow-green bird foraging in the top of a locust tree - too big for a warbler, maybe a vireo? very stocky bill, too big for a vireo - a tanager, in fresh fall plumage! Eventually I found three of them, hunting insects in the same tree. Nick and Nate joined me after a while - and had a good look, too.

In which we begin

It seemed to me that a community forum for our birdwatching efforts would be fun - and informative. Share our West Campus birdwatching efforts, keep a list of birds seen, post photos, interesting links, arrange meeting locations...