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Posted by Trey Mitchell on 18:39:10 12/19/07
Toe and I went to ENP looking for County Year Birds, sparrows and Yellow Rail. We arrived just before 6am and drove slow about a mile before the park entrance and saw the Short-eared Owl fly from its perch on a post near Lucky Hammock.
On Research Rd. we found one Whip-poor-will on the side of the road. At the corner just before the missile base we found another Short-eared Owl. Toe saw it perched and it flew a little way and went down into the shrub area to the north of the base. It was obvious the owl wasn't a Barn or a Barred Owl. It had
bent wings and flew like the Short-eared Owl seen at Lucky.
We walked in the field to the west of the base and found many Palm Warbler and a large number of Yellow Rump flying from the trees to the west. We walked to the rear of the Missile base and found several Marsh Wren, Swamp Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow and Lincoln Sparrow.
We tried to locate the Short-eared Owl before heading to the area to the southeast of the Daniel Beard Center. We covered an area of about 75-100 acres and found Grasshopper Sparrow, Savannah and a Vesper Sparrow. I saw a bird flush that was probably a Yellow-rail from the color size and shape, but
would have liked a better look. The white patches on the wing didn't stand out. If they would have I would be confident. Oh well ...
Then we headed to Hidden Lake area and found two Lesser Scaup, about 30 Hooded Merganser, 6-8 Black Bellied Plover, Killdeer, Yellow Legs and one Least Sandpiper. We saw Harrier and a Short-tailed Hawk in the area also.
In total we walked about 5 miles off trail and a mile at hidden lake. We both were feeling it ...
We also saw other birds typical for this time of year.
I only took a few photo
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