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Posted by Toe on 23:34:10 04/16/08
First one this morning: a Summer Tanager flew across Old Cutler Rd. just north of Eureka Dr. I then saw my FOY Gray Kingbird as I boarded the Peoplemover in Downtown on my way to a meeting. During lunch I saw a Redstart near my office, so I figured I'd stop somewhere on the way home. At ~5:00 pm I stopped at Sadowski and saw....NOTHING! No birds! Bummer, I'm going home. As I pull into the driveway I notice activity near my feeder. I saw a Great-crested Flycatcher, Red-eyed Vireo (FOY), 10 Nutmeg Mannakins, Cardinal, and Blue Jay all in the same Firebush. OK, I want to see more birds, but first I need to go get pool chemicals. I arrived at Cutler Wetlands late only to find water levels have come down, but not enough. There were a few LB Dowitchers almost in breeding plumage, some Yellowlegs and the usual stuff. I went to Dump Marsh and saw very little, but did see a calling Solitary Sandpiper fly overhead (FOY), and two Harriers hunting just across the fence to the landfill. I went back to Cutler and found two Solitary Sandpipers near the north end of the wetlands, along with a nice group of Dowitchers.
If water levels continue to come down (rain, rain go the h@%! away), we should be getting more shorebirds by the end of the month, especially the White-rumped Sandpipers. The place is about to get nuked, so hopefully we'll have more open water and mud flats than what currently exists there.
To end the afternoon, as I pulled into my driveway I heard a nighthawk just before closing the garage door, and going outside I saw my FOY Common Nighthawk overhead. Looking at last year's list, these birds are all within a couple days of when I first saw them last year. But, it seems like our summer birds are arriving before many of our spring migrants.
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