Belle Isle Bird List October 7 2007

The early part of the cold morning was full of butterflies. Aside from the usual gaggle of Monarchs (at least a dozen migrating through during the day) there was a Red Admiral. I don't have a previous record of one for Belle Isle. A surprise in mid-October--or is it? The other odd butterfly was one of the Ladies--Painted or American, I couldn't tell. It moved too quickly. Early on there was a fallout of migrant birds. I saw a number of sparrows, mostly Savannah, but some others as well, around Palermo Street. Geoff Wood said he saw a sapsucker and and a number of Hermit Thrushes and Ruby-crowned Kinglets around the Park entrance. Later on Matthew Garvey went traipsing

all over the salt marsh and kicked up a large number of sparrows, of which many were Savannahs, but he felt sure many others were sharp-tails. 3 definitely teed up for him and he identified them as Nelson's Sharptails. I too went chasing after them, but the only one I got any looks at was turned away from me. I saw a very dull orangy-brown face and not much else. Thin grey lines down the back. The strong wind contributed to a very uncooperative bunch of marsh sparrows.

The raptor activity was best around 9:30 (EST) and then dropped off sharply. Most of the tidal pools in the Reservation have been filling up regularly when the extra high tides occur (spring tides). But the fresh water ponds are dry. The one we call the Muskrat Pond was completely dry last week. I walked across it without getting wet. A little bit of rain over the past week has given us a smidgen of water in that pond again.