Yet another strong storm passed to our south on Friday, leaving most of our gardens once again dry. As darkness fell on Friday night, birds took to the skies on a light southerly wind, but with the storm blocking things from moving into the area from the south, the radar indicated a rather significant exodus of birds, but almost nothing arriving. Here are the 10pm, 1am, and 4am radar images, for example:

While there were very few migrants around at Florida Lake Park, as expected from the radar analysis, our Saturday morning birdwalk group had a great outing, tallying 55 species (7 species of warblers), including 2 Canada Warblers, a Lincoln’s Sparrow – my first of the year, and all 5 species of swallows: 1 Cliff and 1 Northern Rough-winged, 2 Bank, 6 Barn, and 20+ Trees! Plus, we were lucky enough to observe two River Otters.

Our second pair of Gray Catbirds has now returned to our store’s feeding station and garden, and Jeannette and I have been thoroughly entertained by their constant battles outside our window. And, our grape jelly and suet offerings are dwindling even more quickly now! Meanwhile, early Saturday morning, 5 Pine Siskins visited our yard in Pownal, the first that we have had since late December. There seems to be a good push of Pine Siskins back into the area in the past week, as I have observed quite a few here and there, had some passing by the hawkwatch, and reports from others have increased dramatically. Welcome back!

Meanwhile, another very good flight occurred Saturday night. Light southwesterly winds, becoming calm, ushered in an excellent push of birds. Once again, here’s the 10:00pm, 1:00am, and 4:00am radar:

A weak front – that produced some very light, and widely scattered, showers – crossed at about 7:30am, too late to have an impact on nocturnal birds. Winds didn’t become westerly until about 8:00am, almost 3 hours after dawn. If that front had crossed about 4-5 hours earlier, we may have seen a significant fallout.

Nevertheless, I had an excellent, albeit brief, outing this morning. First, I checked the sunny edge of the recreation fields at Hedgehog Mountain Park, which produced a handful of migrants, including 6 Magnolia Warblers. Florida Lake Park was busy once again. New arrivals there, since yesterday, included a second Solitary Sandpiper, a gorgeous Blackburnian Warbler, an Eastern Kingbird, and a Wood Thrush – my first for the park, and rather out of place singing from within a patch of Balsam Fir (they are a decidous woods denizen).

On Sunday, June 15th, I will be leading a birdwalk for the Libby Hill Forest Trails in Gray. I have volunteered to lead this walk in order to raise awareness about the park and its avifauna. We will be listening to and looking for the breeding birds of the reserve, which should include a variety of warblers. Also, we are requiring a donation of $20 for this outing, of which 100% will go directly towards the group’s purchase of critical parcel of 29 acres in order to permanently protect it from development, and continue to offer access to the already protected land. Basically, this small parcel is the “front door” to all of the trails of the forest! Learn more at www.libbyhill.org, and I hope that you can join us. And, sign up soon, as we are limiting the group to 15 participants. Hope to see you there!

And, for your viewing pleasure, here are Kirk’s photos from our outing on Friday.