Sunday, August 29, 2010

Princeton, August 27th and 29th

I did a little walk without optics along the gravel road at the Institute Woods on Friday after work. Migrants were pretty much absent - the Eastern Wood-Pewee that was calling may have been a resident bird. However on my way back to the car there was a good find - two Pileated Woodpeckers feeding fairly close to the road. Once you track down the wood chopping sound there's not much you can mistake a Pileated for.

On the morning of the 29th I returned with optics to check out migration but it was still deathly quiet. I found a Scarlet Tanager along the road, Pewees were calling and that was it again. At the pond Red-winged Blackbirds were numerous, probably roosting there, and two slimmer tan icterids took off heading away from me - probably Bobolinks. Best bird was a Ruby-throated Hummingbird that shot past me as I was standing on the observation platform (literally a few feet to my left) and kept heading south-west. The loud drumming from deeper in the forest sounded big enough that it was the Pileateds again, but I didn't see them this time.

No comments: