Birding Black Oak Herritage Park in West Windsor

This park is quite incredible. I walked it on Thursday as it was one of the few sunny afternoons we've had in a while. With respect to birding, first half of my walk though was pretty quiet with the exception of a few Goldfinches, Drumming Downy Woodpeckers, and a Golden Crowned Kinglet. The beauty of this forest is really just incredible. Wet sloughs everywhere, creeping vines, old dead trees, rolling hills with several different habitats from open grassland to dense forest to slightly more open savanah. Even without seeing any birds, this forest is incredible. I was amazed at the beautiful green carpet of moss and small flowering plants covering the black, uncompacted soil. Just awesome. Click here for a little more about the park.

The birding ended up picking up in the later part of my walk. It started with seeing a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker, then hearing a Carolina Wren, which I later found! A male/female pair of Yellow Rumped Warblers were seen, then a fallout of Bluebirds.  The walk ended up with a cool list of birds that are listed below. Just the typical expected birds.

I think Caronlina Wren might be one of my top 5 favorite birds. I rarely see them though. Even at Point Pelee this year, I have heard them on occasion, but from a great distance. I heard two Carolina Wrens at Black Oak Heritage Park today

Bluebird Fallout? I saw about 4 pairs of Bluebirds in the grassy area behind the Dainty Rice Building. I also flushed many Chipping Sparrows as I walked back to the parking lot.

I've never tagged a Chipping Sparrow on this blog until today. They are pretty little Sparrows. I was watching them recently from "Moms House" from a close range of about 8' through a bay window.

This must be the 30th YBSS that I've seen this spring. I've just been lucky seeing them. To bad they don't really stick around through the summer!

My field trip list: (I need to post this info to ebird.ca!!!)
Golden Crowned Kinglet 1
American Goldfinch 6
Robins 6
Blue Jay 1
Hermit Thrushes 10
Northern Flicker 1
White Breasted Nuthatch 1
Eastern Bluebirds 8
Chipping Sparrows 10
Downy Woodpeckers 5
Yellow bellied Sapsucker 1
Carolina Wren 2
Yellow Rumped Warbler 2
Eastern Phoebe 1

A great walk on a beautiful night. I must say, I rarely walk this park, but it has given me many lifers! I recall seeing my first Blue-grey Gnatcatcher here. If fact, I found a nest for this cool little bird in this park last summer.   It is interesting to see how the new DRIC project will effect the Ojibway Complex. The Bridge may cut off the river access to the Ojibway Complex. This Citizens Environmental Alliance article proposes that the access to the river, be kept and strengthened for future. The propose a pretty cool idea... "The Real Green Link" -->http://www.citizensenvironmentalliance.org/cea_news/cea_news_005.html .


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More Birding Books...

This week,  I actually looked up a book I'd been interested in reading at windsorpubliclibary's website. I dropped in after work  and skimmed through the contents of "Birding at Point Pelee" by H. O'Neil and "Sibley's Birding Basics" by DA Sibley in one evening!

Both books have been really interesting. I was a little shocked at how "difficult" the "Birding Basics" book was. I guess my eyes gloss over when I read about primaries, secondaries and tertiaries, as well as H-P Plumage Cycles. But, with each exposure to such concepts, they become a little more engrained. This book goes into Identification techniques, Taxonomy, Behavior, Feathers, Mot, Aging, and Ethics ... gosh ... so much to know.

Birding at Point Pelee has been an interesting read/scan but I guess I was looking for more information or information from a slightly different context. The story I want to know about Point Pelee is more about what happened with the Onion fields. At Point Pelee, there are some signs on the Delaurier Trail path near the sloughs/octagon that delve into this story (complete with actual newspaper clippings). I was hoping this book delved into that story more but it doesn't seem to. Its still a good book overall. Its funny how many common names continue to resurface in the birding world.

Good birding,
Dwaynejava