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Posted by Chris on 19:44:12 03/17/09
I spent a couple hours at Barnes this afternoon and saw pretty much the same group of birds I saw a couple weeks ago (in addition to another car broken into, parked near the Nature Center):
Blue headed vireo
Summer tanager
Black-and-white warbler
N. Parula
Prairie warbler
Palm warbler
Magnolia warbler
Black-throated green warbler
Yellow-rumped warbler
Black-throated blue warbler
Orange-crowned warbler (probable)
Wilson's warbler (female; was foraging high in the trees this time, in contrast to the other times I've seen her)
Afterward, what I thought was going to be a fairly unexciting stop at Matheson turned out to be excellent (btw, it looks like a new parking lot has been constructed on the west side of Matheson, near where the Pileated woodpeckers are usually seen).
On the way in I saw only a single ovenbird foraging in the leaf litter. Just when I was about to give up I noticed some activity in the weeds at the end of the trail. Hanging out with the hordes of gray catbirds were two female and one male painted bunting. Unlike the usually shy behavior of most males that I have seen, this one came right out into the open and was interacting with the two females, giving great looks. After watching the buntings I noticed something odd sticking out of a hole that used to be occupied by pileated woodpeckers (in the clump of three palms). On inspection, it turned out to be an Eastern Screech Owl (a lifer for me--had only heard them before). Shortly after this I got great looks at two pileated woodpeckers, one of which hung out on the ground for a couple minutes. Also saw:
Hill mynas
Merlin
Blue-and-gold macaws (two flew over)
Chestnut-fronted macaws
A flock of what looked like blue-fronted parrots; these birds made more noise than any other parrots I have ever seen
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