K B Srinivas: Birding at Sabina Woods

After reading about the number of Bay-breasted warbler and the Magnolia's warblers that were seen on Monday evening fallout I decided to visit this birding spot the following weekend. I knew most of the birds would have flowed northwards already. But I still wanted to try my luck with these birds.

First day of the weekend I went straight to the Sabina Pass. One of the first birds I saw were the Purple Martins near their nest boxes. There were quite a few Purple Martins flying over the fields and coming back to rest on the nests. Infact I saw lot of Purple Martin nests around the village. It's good the people care and have put out so many nests for Purple Martins. In the pond near the water drip area there was Northern Waterthrush and Green heron which was waiting to pounce on a fish. When walking around saw couple of Black-chinned Hummingbirds feeding on the flowers nectars. Couple of other interesting birds I saw in the morning were Yellow-throated Vireo and Red-eyed Vireo.

Purple Martin

Black-chinned Hummingbird

Green Heron

Red-eyed Vireo

Another bird that I wanted to see in this trip were the Seaside, Nelson's and LeConte's Sparrow. I had gone through ebird and identified couple of spots which I could check for these birds. One of the spots was driving the side roads on South Avenue and the other spot I wanted to visit was the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge. Initially I drove down the 8th avenue and the side roads. There I heard multiple Rails but did not see any of them. The only sparrows I did see here were Savannah. But I did see multiple Purple Martins and Killdeer with a baby, I had never seen a baby Killdeer before. It was so cute. After this I wanted to try my luck at the National Wildlife Refuge and drove down to the same. On the way I saw a resting Crested Caracara. And at the entrance of the NWR I saw common Nighthawk resting on one of these fence poles. It was strange that it chose this spot which was close to the road and lot of cars were passing this road. Driving the wildlife refuge I did not see any sparrows but did encounter multiple Least Bitterns. I had never seen so many Least Bitterns before in any of my trips. Since I was not seeing any of the sparrows I wanted to see I headed back to the park to see if I can find any of the warblers.

Baby Killdeer

Crested Caracara

Common Nighthawk

Back at the water drips it started to get very busy in the afternoon. After 2 is the best time to just sit at these water drips to see so many birds coming in for a dip in the hot sun or to take a sip of water to drink. There were multiple American Redstarts throughout the afternoon and evening at these drips. There were at least 4 Yellow-billed cuckoo's at one point in the trees above the pond. Again first time to see so many Cuckoo's at a single place. Scarlet and Summer Tanagers kept coming in. The other numerous bird that we saw were the Indigo Buntings. They were ever present at these drips. A female Painted Bunting was also seen but the Male Painted Bunting remained elusive. There was a Eastern-wood Pewee which kept flying above and catching some bugs. Among the orioles we saw both Orchard and Baltimore Orioles. Orchard oriole were plenty but we saw only 2 Baltimore Orioles. We did see both Rose-breasted as well as Blue Grosbeaks here. We saw Yellow-throated, Red-eyed and White-eyed vireos visiting the water drip and Warbling vireo was flying around near the pond area. Among the warblers we saw Hooded, Black and white, Prothonotary and Yellow warbler too. But the highlight of the day for me was seeing a Magnolia Warbler. I had been waiting to see this bird. It's on the cover page of my birding field guide :-) Multiple yellow-breasted chats kept coming in too. It was a wonderful day with lot of colorful birds seen during the day.

Northern Waterthrush

Orhcard Oriole

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Red-eyed Vireo

Prothonotary Warbler

Prothonotary Warbler and American Redstart

BlueJay

Magnolia Warbler

Magnolia and Yellow Warblers

Red-eyed Vireo

Scarlet Tanager(Female)

American Redtstart(Female)

Painted Bunting(Female)

Orchard Oriole(Male and Female together)

Indigo Bunting

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Warbling Vireo

White-winged Dove

Bullfrog

Blue Grosbeak(Juvenile)

Hooded Warbler

Black and White Warbler

White-eyed Vireo

Summer Tanager(Juvenile)

Grey Catbird

Baltimore Oriole

Common Yellowthroat

Next day morning I started the day early visiting the 8th avenue to see the sparrows. When I entered these small roads which had lot of grasslands I could hear lot of sparrows and Rails. The road did not disappoint me. The grasslands had multiple Nelson's sparrow singing and chasing each other. On the opposite side there was a lone Seaside sparrow singing. It stayed for a while and then flushed into the tall grasses behind. Later I observed multiple Seaside sparrows singing in the tall grasses behind. On the left where the shallow pools were present I saw lot of Black-winged Stilts, Wilson's plovers and few ducks too. Among them I saw some Yellowlegs too. I saw at least 2 Least Bitterns in this road. And the highlight of the morning was seeing a Black Rail with 3 baby chicks crossing the road. It was amazing to see Black Rails with babies in consecutive weekends.

Least Bittern

Seaside Sparrow

Marsh Wren

Nelson's Sparrow

Black Rail

Least Bittern

After this I went back to the park for the warblers. At the entrance I saw a Scarlet Tanager eating the mulberries. As I went inside I saw few people looking up in the trees. I was told there were a mix of warbler there. And as they said I saw Blackburnian, Cerulean and Black-throated Green warblers there. After this I saw a Common Yellow-throat singing on the grass. Near the feeder we saw lot of Indigo and Painted Buntings along with them I saw lot of Tanagers. Among the warblers we saw American Redstart's, Chestnut-sided, Black and White, Yellow and Tennessee Warblers. There was a Cape-May female and Bay-breasted female here as well. Among the vireos we saw Red-eyed, White-eyed and Warbling vireos here as well. But most of these were not coming to the drips and we were wondering the reason. and Just when a Yellow warbler came to the drip a big bullfrog jumped out of the pool and tried to catch the bird. It just missed it by a whisker and that is when we found the reason why these birds were not coming to the drip. There were couple of frogs waiting to prance on these birds there. There are just too many bull frogs here :-)