I went to TRP Saturday morning because I needed to be close to home and then again on Sunday because I just couldn’t get excited about going anywhere. Maybe the seemingly constant cloud cover had something to do with that. Since I had just been there, I decided to try another part of the park. Instead of the main trail and big field surrounding it where I birded Saturday, I parked at the next area and walked toward the confluence of the two rivers. Right at the start there is a field of tall grass and I could hear birds so I went in. The grass was eye level but not difficult. I followed deer tails as much as I could and soon found perhaps 30 Sedge Wrens. They did not seem at all concerned about me and many times they landed too close for the camera. Eventually I emerged from the tall grass and walked the rest of the length of that trail and there got a good view of an Osprey. The interesting thing is I’ve seen an Osprey at TRP or Cook’s Landing each of the last four weekends. Since they are in migration, I expect it’s not the same one but since this bird is not symmetrical he should be easy to spot again.
Species seen or heard at TRP on either Saturday or Sunday:
- American Crow
- Bald Eagle
- Belted Kingfisher
- Blue Jay
- Brown Thrasher
- Canada Goose
- Carolina Chickadee
- Carolina Wren
- Common Yellowthroat
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Downy Woodpecker
- Eastern Bluebird
- Eastern Phoebe
- European Starling
- Gray Catbird
- Great Blue Heron
- Great Egret
- House Finch
- House Wren
- Indigo Bunting
- Killdeer
- Lincoln’s Sparrow
- Mourning Dove
- Northern Cardinal
- Northern Flicker
- Northern Mockingbird
- Osprey
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Red-shouldered Hawk
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
- Sedge Wren
- Sharp-shinned Hawk
- Snow Goose
- Song Sparrow
- Swamp Sparrow
- Turkey Vulture
