Nine of us braved the cold this morning at the Bartlett Shelter in Schenley Park. We didn’t see anything blooming in 20F degrees but it was sunny and the birds were active.
We saw three Best Birds: a fox sparrow sunning himself by the stream, a golden-crowned kinglet flitting in the treetops, and a male pileated woodpecker hammering a dead branch (unusual for Schenley). I checked my records for the fox sparrow. He’s the earliest I’ve seen in Schenley Park. They always arrive alone — usually April 4 to 9.
Here are the birds we saw and heard:
* Red-bellied Woodpeckers
* Downy Woodpeckers
* Northern Flicker (heard, not seen)
* Pileated Woodpecker, unusual in Schenley Park
* Blue Jays, abundant and loud
* American Crow, flyover
* Carolina Chickadees
* Tufted Titmice
* White-breasted Nuthatches
* Golden-crowned Kinglet, 1
* European Starlings
* Fox Sparrow, 1 by the stream
* Song Sparrows, singing
* Dark-eyed Juncoes, singing
* Northern Cardinals, singing
* Common Grackles
* House Finches
I’m so glad we went out this morning! If I hadn’t promised to be there I would have missed that fox sparrow. 🙂
The next outing will be Sunday April 26, 8:30am. Meet at the Schenley Park Visitors Center (near Phipps). Check here for details as the date approaches.
(photo of the outing group, 29 March 2015 !If I misspelled your name, please let me know in a Comment)
Oh darn! I let he cold keep me from going. And I could have seen a pileated woodpecker! I’ll be there in April.
I gather it is unusual, so I thought I’d mention that we’ve had a fox sparrow hanging around the ground under our feeders all winter. He even had the courtesy to show up for the Great Backyard Bird Count.
Yesterday’s post got me thinking about honeysuckles. Amazingly, there are 18 species which occur in Pennsylvania, nine of which are introduced (some are extremely invasive), and six more of which do not occur in Allegheny County. Of the three native to this area, the one I am most familiar with and have growing in my yard is trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera semmpervirens). This is an excellent native plant — a woody vine (requiring support), leafing out and blooming early and lasting well into fall. The red blooms attract hummingbirds. It can usually be found at native plant nurseries. (Beware…deer eat it.) The second native, glaucous honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica var. glaucescens), which is also a vine, I have never grown for lack of local seed. The third species, which I have never even seen, is fly honeysuckle (Lonicera canadensis), which is a shrub that grows in cool woods and ravines, or on rocky slopes.