Plan A had been to drive to Craighead Forest Park this morning but I saw a post from Dick Baxter last night where he and Ron Howard had birded the area yesterday and the list of notables that he provided made me think whether I wanted go there in the rain. As it turns out, all of this birding and these trips I’ve made recently have paid off, I had already seen (this year) every bird on his list except the Caspian Tern. The tern would be nice but I decided against going up there in a driving rain for the chance of seeing him.
I left the house (in the rain) for Bell Slough WMA this morning with the thought that it might well be submerged. Sure enough it was so I went to Plan C. Plan C was Allsopp Park even though I had just been there yesterday. Not surprisingly, mine was the only car at Allsopp since there was a steady moderate rain. I donned poncho and waterproof boots and took off. I went up the main paved trail as usual and then at the top took the trail to the east. This “high” trail seems to pace Cedar Street and then ends up at the softball field. By the time I finished, at 9:10, the rain had stopped so I took off back up the main trail hopping for more birds this time. Once I got to the top this time I veered to the west and walked the biking trails on that side. In all I spent 2:10 there and walked about 3.5 miles.
Species seen or heard:
- American Robin
- Tufted Titmouse
- Northern Cardinal
- Swainson’s Thrush
- Gray Catbird
- Magnolia Warbler
- Carolina Chickadee
- Blue Jay
- American Crow
- Killdeer
- Mississippi Kite
- White-eyed Vireo
- Northern Mockingbird
- Chimney Swift
- Worm-eating Warbler
- Yellow-billed Cuckoo
- Broad-winged Hawk
- Summer Tanager
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Eastern Phoebe
