April 16 - Inwood Hill Park - short walk

This will be a short report. I had a Zoom meeting to attend and other computer work to do today so I was only able to do a short walk in the morning in Inwood. I didn't even get up on the ridge. Warblers are still eluding me, though Danny Karlson texted me that he found two Palm Warblers in the lower Clove shortly after I passed him near the entrance to the park as I was headed home. My one new bird was a Merlin spotted by Nadir Souirgi flying over near the top of the Clove.

My short walk tallied 30 species (list below). Before getting to the list here are a couple of interesting photos. Yesterday I pictured one of the Eastern Redbud trees starting to bloom. Here is a close-up of one of the trees showing how the buds grow right out of the branches.

Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)

On the edge of the soccer fields, high in a tree is an old oriole nest from last year. The fun thing about it is that the bird incorporated into the structure of the nest a long piece of metallic green ribbon. The photo shows the green color, but does not show how it sparkles in the early morning sun as the wind blows the branch around.

old oriole nest

Canada Goose
Mallard
Great Blue Heron (standing on the Columbia dock)

Great Egret
Red-tailed Hawk
Merlin
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
American Goldfinch (singing from the top of a tree, edge of soccer fields)

House Sparrow