Hello Eh!
Today Ian Cannell, Margaret Liubavicius and I birded The Islands again and a beautiful and birdiful day it was.
As the ferry was pulling in to the dock at Hanlans Point at 8:15 am Margaret and Ian spotted a large flock of small birds descending into the area beside the dock and after we got off of the ferry we went over to that area and discovered hundreds of White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows as well as 100 or so Dark-eyed Juncos. From here it was uphill with some nice species observed.
We found an Orange-crowned Warbler near the ferry dock and another one at the southwest end of the airfield fence and along the western side of the same fence Ian spotted a Sharp-tailed Sparrow. No LeConte's Sparrow or Sedge Wren spotted so it seems that they have moved on.
Some of the other birds we found were Turkey Vulture, Cooper's Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, 46 Eastern Phoebes, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Winter Wrens, 100's of both Kinglets, Gray-cheeked Thrushes, Swainson's Thrush, 87 Hermit Thrushes, Blue-headed Vireo, 8 Warbler species, 13 Sparrow species including the above mentioned Sharp-tailed, Eastern Towhee, Chipping, Field, Vesper, Savannah, Fox, Lincoln's, Swamp, and hundreds of White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos, Eastern Meadowlarks and Rusty Blackbird.
While birding we stopped to talk to a couple of other (reliable) birders and they informed us that they had found another Sharp-tailed Sparrow in the beach grasses behind the west side of the airfield and flushed a Short-eared Owl as well, they had also observerd several American Pipits and a Bald Eagle heading west.
