Thursday I went to a spot not too far away I had heard good bird reports on. By this no rares but just a good amount, especially waterfowl, which I seem to be particularly drawn. It was easily found and a nice secluded spot set between two main thouroughfares, but once inside the forest, the peace of nature was all about. I ended up going on most of the trail, giving my legs and back an excellent workout. Why my back - well my usually shoulder bag with notebook/birding guide/water/powerbars hung from one side and on the other shoulder were tripod and digiscope - never used it either - that thing gets heavy.
I started on the yellow trail down to the lakeside. The Lake was encased with fog and I could not see more than five feet beyond the shore. I did see numerous song and white-throated sparrows and dark juncos in the underbrush along the shore, hopping along the ground and in the low to mid-branches.
Then I heard some splashing, ah, water birds, as I creeped along and came upon an older gentleman playing fetch with his pretty golden in the lake...sigh.
I decided to follow the blue trail in land, which nicely had many side loops that took the hiker along the water's edge so I had a good view of the fishermen and their boats but alas no water fowl, save for the call of a female mallard in the distance.
Along the trail, I followed my plan of stopping when hearing chickadee's and nuthatch. At one point, rather than seeing other birds, I must have stumbled upon some secret meeting place (or an unseen predator was behind me) as close to 20 chickadees and 5-9 titmice flitted from branch to branch in a half orb in front of me with their harsh calls warning me off. As soon as I started walking, they went back to their secret doings.
On other small stops I managed to see some other lovely birds, many white throated sparrows, a few yellow-rumped warblers, a golden-crowned kinglet, a blue headed vireo (life bird), several downy, 1 hair woodpecker, several cardinals (the males chasing each other around in pairs ), a quartet of turkey vulture, crows, bluejays, 2 brown creepers (good looks but no pictures). The lighting early on was not the best, and I am still adjusting to the new camera, so again without many pictures, I still had a lovely birding day and a nice nap afterward.
