Allan Mueller and I met at Camp early Wednesday morning to go over the survey route that I would use when conducting the IBA surveys I had agreed to do. It was cool and wet but sunny. We started at the gun range and visited all of the areas that we knew to have habitat appropriate to Bachman’s Sparrow although they weren’t the only bird of interest for the survey. It didn’t seem very birdy and certainly the numbers of individuals were not great but when we finished we had 69 species for the morning including 17 warblers and 4 first of year birds for me – Bachman’s Sparrow, Blackburnian Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, and American Redstart. In the end, it was well worth the saturated shoes.
The map below shows the locations where Allan and I heard two Bachman’s Sparrows. I think the road names are incorrect. The first was on the eastern side of a hill whose western side is Skid Tank Hill Road and from which you can see a corner of the nursery pond. The third point in the upper left is where we encountered many of our 17 species of warbler.
