SIx Mile Run and Griggstown, July 11th

For the first bit of birding I'd done since the MN-ND-WY and Britain trips, I went to Six Mile Run and Griggstown to get a feel of mid-summer birding there. I only got to Six Mile Run by 9am so had to compete with bicyclists for trail usage. Nevertheless I got a pretty reasonable sample of bird life there: Song, Field and Grasshopper Sparrows, Willow Flycatcher, Yellow Warbler, Eastern Bluebird, Indigo Bunting, American Goldfinch - these are all pretty representative of the species there and some of them were still singing including one Grasshopper Sparrow. Perhaps they were starting to worry about second broods, which is probably what all those singing House Wrens are doing (like the one in my back yard).

Griggstown, by contrast, was quiet although it was even later in the morning. Griggstown is less of a native grassland preserve right now than a native shrub and weed preserve and the amount of actual grassland probably translates into reduced diversity. So I didn't linger there and concentrated on trying to fit a modest-sized Buddleia (Butterfly Bush) in my Honda Accord for the drive home from the Belle Mead co-op. This place are good about stocking native plants and many of the perennials in my attempt to make the new place more wildlife-friendly have come from there.