Contributed by Lucie Lehmann
Seventeen people showed up at 7:30 a.m. on September 16, a cool and gray morning, for the monthly monitoring walk on the Green Mountain Audubon property in Huntington. GMAS board member Ali Wagner led the group, which included a mix of old and young and experienced and neophyte birders.
It was slow going up near the Education Barn and the upper fields, with one female Hairy Woodpecker working her way among mostly robins and chickadees, and one solitary Cedar Waxwing posing patiently for the bird-hungry crowd.
Things picked up considerably across the road and down by the pond. A mixed flock feeding among the sumacs, aspens, and willows included Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, and Common Yellowthroat warblers. A lone Osprey and a pair of Canada Geese hurried on their way in the skies above, while the sharp chick-burr call of a Scarlet Tanager prompted a mass swiveling of heads, though we never did see the bird.
Saturday, September 16th Aboretum checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S150070810
Saturday, September 16th Peeper Pond checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S150071341
Ali Wagner will lead the next monitoring walk on Saturday, October 14 at 8:00 a.m. at the Green Mountain Audubon Center on Sherman Hollow Road in Huntington. All are welcome.