Earth Day at Millenium Park

I headed over to Millenium Park on this drizzly Earth Day, hoping the weather might mean the birds would be out longer and there might a be slightly few dogs. As soon as I opened my car door I was assaulted by the commotion of blackbirds. Grackles, Red-wings, and Cowbirds. Then I hear a buzzy song coming from the grassy slopes, a two-parted insect like song with one buzzy trill proceeded by a slightly lower pitched buzzy trill. I knew it had to be a sparrow, so I quickly pulled out my phone and on low volume (so as not to let the real birds hear) I went through the sparrows and quickly found it was a Savannah Sparrow! While I had seen many of them before, this was the first I was able to identify the song.

At the boat ramp I was hoping to find blue-winged teals, snipe, or even a pectoral sandpiper (all recently reported on Massbird) but they were not to be seen. I there were a pair of Killdeer running around the mudflats and a pair of green-winged teals. The teals were feeding next to a mallard and their small size was quite evident. A rapid knocking behind me proved to be a downy and I heard a faint warbley song but I couldn't quite get a handle on it before it stopped. I then follow the path down by the river and when it curved along the Saw Mill Brook, a "sweet-sweet-sweet-little-more-sweet" song came from high up in the trees. I eventually managed to track down the singer to confirm this Yellow Warbler. I hadn't walked two more steps when the saplings in the marsh had more songsters, another Yellow Warbler and a Warbling Vireo!

Mallard Drake

Lots of Mallards filled Saw Mill Brook and the beaver pond and the tree swallows flew low over the marsh. I also was able to get great views of a Swamp Sparrow with his whitish throat, rufous cap and wings. Then he sang a faster song, more like a Chipping Sparrow than the typical Swamp Sparrow song. The lighting was pretty poor for my little camera, but the audio is great as he was just a few meters away and not very shy! Just after the trilled song a Red-winged Blackbird gives his "conkla-ree" call.





Walking back to my car I reflected on how this 12 year old park used to be a landfill and now it is full of people jogging, walking dogs, and watching birds. The grassy slopes are a favorite sparrow habitat and the beavers are working hard to fell the trees for their damns and lodge. The idea of this park as reclaimed wild space made me think it was an extra special place to visit on Earth Day.