As hurricane Sandy approached, many birders were thinking
about searching for sea birds blown north by the storm. I on the other hand was
just busy battening down the hatches. I spent most the day inside and peeked
out a few times. Early on, before the winds got too strong, there was an
intrepid mockingbird guarding the locust tree and chasing off the few sparrows
that ventured out. Later on, I was looking out of the windows and startled a
few robins, who were hunkering down in the bushes under the window.
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| White-throated Sparrow |
The morning after Sandy, I slept in a little before
venturing out to check out the damage. We were fortunate enough (this time
anyway) not to have a single branch down or shingle out of place. But I was
mostly amazed at the tremendous amount of bird activity. They all must have
been blown off course or were starving after riding out the storm. I could hear
song fragments of white-throated and song sparrows, so I wonder if these were
males born this spring practicing their craft. I even caught a glimpse of a
beautiful white-throated sparrow specimen with very clean white, crisp black,
and a bright yellow lore spot (unfortunately not the one I got a picture of). A family of chickadees and a white-breasted
nuthatch worked the cedar trees, while the white pines sported some starlings,
and to my surprise, two male red-winged blackbirds, a first in the yard. I was
at first skeptical, as they were so high up, but I caught glimpses of colored
patches on the wing, so who else could it have been? In the shrubs I found a
cardinal, blue jay, and house sparrows, while down in the grass there were a
few robins and juncos. Just as I was heading off to work, a mockingbird flew
overhead, so I knew that she at least made it safely through the storm.
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