Baille Birdathon Summary 2008


This was certainly an interesting search for bird species this year.   
Although I love a cool slow spring, it meant a slow migration,  
especially for finding warblers.  I did find some but 1 by 1, unlike  
past years where I could count on known pockets.  Also the change in  
weather had me changing my route several times.  It also changed my  
timing, from doing my birdathon on Saturday, to partly Friday and  
partly Saturday to try to avoid the rain.  And in the end, I did  
better than I had thought with 127 species, pretty close to my record  
of 131.

I started out in Vermont somewhere between Burlington and Shelburne  
the afternoon of Friday May 16th and ended up at Wickham Marsh 24  
hours later, foregoing midnight hours.  Fortunately the rain forecast  
for much of my search time never happened.

As I said, I started out in Vermont after doing errands.  My first  
bird was a Fish Crow near Red Rocks Park.  I continued on, picking up  
birds here and there until getting on the ferry at Charlotte for  
Essex.  Several birds such as Tufted Titmouse were near my mother’s  
house there.  The following morning, up at 5:30am, I headed south,  
passing through Westport where I found 3 Bonaparte’s Gulls amongst  
several Ring-billed Gulls.  A Common Loon and some Red-breasted  
Mergansers were in the small cove at Camp Dudley.  As I arrived at  
the bridge at Crown Point, I decided to hit Dead Creek Wildlife  
Management Area first and to give Mike and his pals at the Crown  
Point Banding station time to get up (!) before I would visit there.   
At Dead Creek I found not only more species but birders doing a  
birdathon for Vermont!  I also had a flyover of a Peregrine Falcon!   
Once I was finished there, I headed back to Crown Point.  Walking  
around the site didn’t bring much and Mike said it had been rather  
quiet all week.  I finally had a Blackpoll Warbler in the bushes  
while nearing my car.  It was back to Vermont to check out the  
Farrell access for Dead Creek, and on to the Otter Creek area.  Once  
again I crossed the lake on the ferry from Charlotte but this time I  
drove north to Noblewood.  Unfortunately I found little there,  
probably due to the late hour and some boys running around and being  
loud.  Little shore there made for no shorebirds.  As time was  
running out, I decided to make my last stop at Wickham Marsh.  A  
lovely Marsh Wren was singing in front of me at the clearing.  He  
would hop to the top of a reed, and sing while sliding down.  Soon he  
would appear again, and again.  I met a nice couple and their dog  
there.  While showing the man a Common Yellowthroat, I suddenly heard  
my last bird, one I had been hoping for all day, a Black-throated  
Green Warbler!

It wasn’t until much later that I totaled my list and was surprised  
to find it so close to my past record, in spite of finding some a  
difficult task.

My list follows here:
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Green-winged Teal
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Ring-necked Pheasant
Ruffed Grouse
Wild Turkey
Common Loon
Double-crested Cormorant
American Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Sanderling
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Wilson’t Snipe
Bonaparte’s Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Caspian Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Peewee
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Yellow-throated Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Boreal Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Winter Wren
Marsh Wren
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
American Pipit
Cedar Waxwing
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Pine Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler
American Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Scarlet Tanager
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
Purple Finch
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
Evening Grosbeak
House Sparrow