Good evening.
Today was a beautiful day before the rain and a good day on The Islands. Alfred Adamo picked me up at home and away we went to The Islands.
It started a little slow but as the sun rose the birds became more active and off we went on the usual Island walk.
As we observed and I counted the usual birds Alfred drew my attention to a Heron overhead at 7:45 am flying NNW over Wards Island and as I caught the rear end of the bird Alfred identified it as a Little Blue Heron and I concurred. A life bird on The Islands for the both of us.
We then continued on with bigger smiles and found birds in small groups at several places until we were on Hanlans Point on the East side of the airfield where Alfred came up with 5 Sandhill Cranes heading in an easterly directions (I missed them).
We were fortunate to catch the ferry back to the city and his car just a hair before the heavy rain came down.
A good day and in between these 2 nice sightings we came up with the following birds which are only some of the ones we found.
10 Canvasbacks, 1 Little Blue Heron, 2 Great Egrets,1 Great Blue and 20+ Black-crowned night-Herons, 1 Northern Harrier plus a Peregrine Falcon carrying prey, 5 Sandhill Cranes, Solitary Sandpiper, Bonaparte's Gulls, 3 Belted Kingfishers, 22 Least Flycatchers, Great crested Flycatchers, E. Kingbirds, 5 Blue-headed Vireos, Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos, Veery, Swainson's Thrush, 9 Wood Thrush, 19 Gray Catbirds, Brown Thrashers, Carolina, Winter and House Wrens, 13 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Purple Martins and Cliff Swallows, 14 Warbler species including Blackburnian, Bay-breasted, Blackpoll, Ovenbirds, 2 Mourning, Wilson's and Canada, 8 Sparrow species including Lincoln's and E. Towhees, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and E. Meadowlark.
As I said a good day to be out and the only other birder seen was a local islander.
