September Surprise
On Friday, SBTH member Judy Gass and I hiked the trail on Charter Sanctuary to see what birds were still hanging around. There were still hordes of sparrows in the prairie grasses. The only problem is that there is now so much cover that we were unable to identify any of them except for the Vespers when they flew away from us.
The pond was quiet, except for a single Song Sparrow bouncing around in a brush pile at the west end. Even he didn’t stay long.
There was a lot of activity along the trail just east of the wetland, north of our home. A couple of young hummingbirds took nectar from the remaining Joe-pye blossoms and two warblers – a young yellowthroat and a Nashville – were hawking insects from various wetland plants. Chickadees called from the woods and Cedar Waxwings foraged in black cherries across the creek from where Judy and I stood. Heard, but not seen, were scolding catbirds in the brush.
Brown Thrasher by Jeff Kingery
That night we had our first frost, and the next day we figured that most of the rest of our Neotropicals had been kicked out by the frosty air. But that did not prove to be the case as several Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and at least one catbird were still eating ripened black cherries. Then, as I had my lunch, a Brown Thrasher moved in through the serviceberries outside the kitchen window. It was the latest we’ve ever seen this bird on the property, and it was a very exciting find. The beautiful bird with the rusty back searched for food in the leaf litter under the cherry trees and serviceberry bushes next to the house…a good reminder about how helpful it is to our birds not to be too uptight about leaf raking at this time of year.