Morning Birding Species List | October 7, 2014
ACES Staff
October 7, 2014
Tuesday, October 7, 2014, 7AM – 10AM
Weather: mostly sunny
Location: Hallam Lake, North Star Nature Preserve
Species Identified | ||
Wood Duck (pictured above) Mallard Dusky Grouse Cooper’s Hawk Downy Woodpecker Steller’s Jay Black-billed Magpie American Crow Black-capped Chickadee American Dipper |
American Dipper American Robin Cedar Waxwing Chipping Sparrow Vesper Sparrow Song sparrow White-crowned Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Pine Siskin Evening Grosbeak |
Comments: This was an especially rewarding outing, that underscores the importance of getting out to bird often to increase your odds of having those ‘right place, right time’ moments.
Aside from excellent views of a dipper diving in the clear, still water of Hallam Lake, we caught a glimpse of a pine marten stealing through the shrubs as we watched waxwings and evening grosbeaks feeding on fruits. The marten, whose presence was made known by mobs of magpies here and there, worked its way along our route where we watched it at length around the ACES garden and pole barn. It then proceeded to catch a Dusky Grouse near the electrical utility building adjacent to ACES’ entrance gate. We observed the marten working to drag its grouse elsewhere while being harassed by magpies, and later saw that it had finally taken its meal away to finish eating. This incredible sighting was followed by multiple sparrow species at North Star, and capped off with the Wood Duck back at Hallam Lake.
A great birding lesson this morning: pay attention to noisy mobs of corvids, because there’s likely an interesting wildlife drama taking place! Also, we normally only record live, wild birds on our Morning Birding lists, but today we decided to include the Dusky Grouse because it was so fresh!