This morning I was finally able to get in some local birding after an extensive period of travel. I visited what I consider to be my patch, the Thorne Pond Conservation area in Bartlett. It was nice to experience early spring migration for the songbirds with early season arrivals such as Palm, Pine and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Blue-headed Vireo, Brown Thrasher (uncommon at this location, only my 2nd time in 11 years), Ruby-crowned Kinglets, etc. There were 27 species I had plus 2-3 additional likely species ID’ed by Merlin which I did not add. Interestingly, the only water bird species I had were a pair of Hooded Mergansers and Canada Goose; normally I would expect Common Mergansers, Wood Ducks, Great Blue Heron, Spotted Sandpiper, etc. While the number of species seen pales in comparison to s. NH, it was a nice collection for the near north at this time of year.
But, it was not the number of species that made my day, rather, it was the sound of singing birds, especially the constant song of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Blue-headed Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warblers, etc. But the best was regularly hearing Brown Creeper. My hearing of high-frequency bird calls is basically gone so most of the year I don’t hear the Creeper’s calls, only its song during the brief spring period.
It just goes to show, that one can have a wonderful morning even when there are no “special” birds around nor a big list.
