ntepper's Journal

I went down to Oakledge Park for my Burlington birding expedition. It was raining pretty heavily today so I did not expect to see and hear as many birds as I did. The first birds i saw were ring-billed gulls which was a standard sighting. I walked out on the jeti and was surprised to hear a bird calling very loudly. I identified it as a kingfisher from the call, but it soon flew closer and was a wonderful sight. I have not seen a king since last summer, and always enjoy how close they fly to the water, as well as their color. I spooked a couple of mallards, and saw some geese as i was traversing the ledges. I circled back through the woods and encountered some chickadees, but walked towards the field to look for forest-edge birds. I heard male robins, male cardinals, male house finches, a male redwing blackbird, and another song i could not identify. Robins were feeding in the field, and i observed the way they listened for worms before striking and pulling their victims out of the ground. I cut the trip short because it started to downpour and i could no longer hear bird songs. It was a good afternoon.

I went pike fishing at Colchester Pond at around 11AM today. I caught one nice pike, and observed a fair amount of bird life. When i first arrived, I saw what looked like a cooper's hawk with a short tail, but upon further observation through binoculars i could see that it was a kestrel. Another one soon joined the first, and they flew right past a larger raptor that was quite obviously an opsrey. The osprey circled the pond for a while, but caught a fish. Buffleheads were diving in the middle of the pond. They seem to be there diving every time I go, so the aquatic insect life is probably substantial. The song sparrows are very numerous and bold at colchester pond, and kept me entertained while i was waiting for a fish to bite. The swallows seemed very happy, the insect hatch has been continuous this year. The phoebes and red-winged blackbirds were loud, and i went to get a better look at the edge of the woods as I was leaving. Earth day provided some interesting observations!