To finish off a month after a couple of weeks idle due to surgery I visited Six Mile Run to see how the postbreeding situation was. I found that they'd mowed a portion of the main field to the north of the grassland path - this might be for habitat regeneration. Best bird was a juvenile Blue Grosbeak, flocking with Field Sparrows (juveniles here too) and a couple of very worn adult Song Sparrows. A few male Indigo Buntings were hanging around, and two were singing. I thought I heard a brief snippet of Grasshopper Sparrow song but didn't see any so I might have been mistaken. The habitat was still in flower, particularly with some thistle species, and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies were relatively numerous. Orchard Oriole, Cedar Waxwing, Eastern Bluebird, House Wren and American Goldfinch were also around.
Contrast this with Griggstown which had no flowering plants within hundreds of yards of the parking lot, no butterflies, and virtually no birds. Franklin Township have really f*cked up the habitat maintenance at Griggstown and actually managed to degrade it substantially.
