Thursday, October 25, 2007

White-throats in Town

White-throated Sparrows have been in the area for a while now, but up until today I had not seen them in great numbers. There were several foraging in the yard this morning, like in the BirdCam photographs above and below.

I heard their weak winter songs as I walked in Donaldson Park this afternoon. More impressive was the number of kinglets - mainly ruby-crowned but also a few golden-crowned. I have rarely seen so many gathered in one place. Also present were a few swamp and field sparrows, a couple eastern phoebes, and a hermit thrush. The river held a large flock of laughing gulls (unusual in the borough), a wood duck, and a few black ducks. The numbers of commoner gulls are building, but not yet at their winter levels.