After the Provosts reported a Virginia Rail at TRP yesterday I decided to try my luck as well. I arrived at 8 AM, parked at the main parking but then walked the road down to the next area so that I could walk up along the backwater without having to peer into the Sun. I then took the north side field to the horse trail and back. I saw an odd bird with a brown back and a blue belly and figured out it was a non-breeding plumage Indigo Bunting. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen one like that. I heard the Virginia Rail right where the Provosts left it yesterday. Since I had been listing to the call, I recognized it right away. It was a year bird for me. At the horse trail, I saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk in a tree with some Blue Jays. To my entertainment, the jays decided to harass the hawk but he was not having any of it. He harassed them right back. Left the park at 10:07.
Species seen or heard:
• Great Egret
• Blue Jay
• American Crow
• Eastern Bluebird
• Carolina Chickadee
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Canada Goose
• Green Heron
• Blue-winged Teal
• Northern Cardinal
• Indigo Bunting
• Brown Thrasher
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Swamp Sparrow
• Wood Duck
• Gray Catbird
• Virginia Rail
• Mourning Dove
• Great Blue Heron
• American Kestrel
• Killdeer
• Loggerhead Shrike
• Eastern Meadowlark
• Northern Flicker
• Sharp-shinned Hawk
• Northern Mockingbird
• Tern sp.
• Turkey Vulture
