 |
 |
Coincidentally, I was at Wright Park this morning too and saw the very same horde of feasting Goldfinches. I didn't have any of the raptor dramatics that Ian did, but I did mange to dig a Northern Waterthush and Red-eyed Vireo out of the flock. Further along the trails I found a Nashville Warbler and a Pied-billed Grebe on the Otter Creek. I also had a brief glimpse of what might have been a juvenile Cape May Warbler in a pod of Chickadees and Titmice, but didn't get a good enough look to confirm it. Full checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/vt/view/checklist?subID=S11538304 -- Ron Payne Middlebury, VT On Fri, 7 Sep 2012 20:25:17 -0400, "Ian A. Worley" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: I had an hour to "waste" at lunch time today so I went to Wright Park. > When I arrived some 60 Goldfinch were busily lunching on weed seeds > in the meadow at the head of the trail, while a number of recent > fledglings were begging and jiggling new wings from the branches of > shrubs and saplings. > > Peace turned to chaos as low from the east a Harrier jumped the > lunchers, zooming about among the shrubs scattering the Golden crowd > like crumbs in an gale. No catch was made. > > An hour later, returning to the car I again found the chattering > finches, paused to listen, when a Merlin exploded at full speed into > the flock, darting, dashing, swerving, jinking ... always with three > or four panicking golden darts right in striking distance scurrying > for their lives while the rest flew in all directions like sparkler > sparks on the 4th. Moments later, in some grasses between two > shrubs, the Merlin was munching on its lunch. > > The full species list is at: > http://ebird.org/ebird/vt/view/checklist/email?subID=S11538774 > > Ian > >