I joined Philip North at the Slate Run wetlands this morning to give them a careful going-over for waterfowl & sparrows.  Waterfowl were mostly AWOL; we only found a bunch of Canada Geese, a pair of Wood Ducks, and a trio of Ring-necks.  Other birds were more cooperative, including

Raptors - 6-8 Turkey Vultures, 1 Harrier, 1 Red-tail, and a Kestrel (along the road) were all up enjoying the blustery wind

Sparrows - many individuals, but nothing terribly unusual.  I estimated about 50 Field Sparrows, 40 Song Sparrows, 25+ Swamp Sparrows, 10 White-crowns, 15 White-throats, 6 Savannah, and 2 Chipping.  Anywhere out of the wind had small flocks of them, and the Field sparrows were putting on quite a show, bending stems of Indian Grass to pick at the seed heads.  There were a few small patches of wild buckwheat and smartweed that yielded nothing unusual; as noted at Pick Ponds, many of the choice wetland areas here were also grassland due to the rather dry summer.

Warblers - the expected Yellow-rumps were joined by an unexpected Palm warbler and Tennessee Warbler, both in the wind-sheltered areas along the western leg of the marsh loop trail.

Blackbirds - we had many 20-40 bird flocks of redwings, grackles, and cowbirds, mostly flying over.  No Meadowlarks, which was surprising since some of the field areas were recently mowed.

Finches - quite a few Goldfinches, but we also had 2 flyover Purple Finches and an early morning flyover Pine Siskin.

There are several newly-mowed 'trails' in the wetland, looping from the main trail and allowing closer inspection of some of the wetland pools and shrub-lines.  Also, the feeders around the parking area haven't been set up yet, so you have to hunt for many of the sparrows and finches out along the trail.  But despite the windy, cloudy weather, there were a lot of birds around, making for a neat morning.

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