Linda and I took a walk at Highbanks Metro Park in southern Delaware County this morning. Saturday the park is conducting a “Warbler Walk” that begins at 8:00 AM at the Nature Center. Doc Jordan is scheduled to lead the walk. Last year Doc being his enthusiastic “go at 110 percent self”, double scheduled himself and I was called out of the bullpen to cover. With that in mind I decided to scout out a course just in case.

In spite of the busloads of kids at the park for filed trips, we were able to walk the Coyote Trail, part of the Dripping Rock Trail and the Scenic River Trail. 

Birds of interest found during the walk included a Solitary Sandpiper [on a sand spit along the river], Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Gray Catbird, Tennessee Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Palm Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Indigo Bunting, and Baltimore Oriole.

The weather prediction of warm winds from the south tonight should (hopefully) bring in a wave of migrants and give a wider variety of “birds of interest”.

After lunch I went to Oxbow Road in the Hoover Nature Preserve with the intention to police trash. There I was greeted by the sight of a multitude of fishermen adding to the trash lining the edge of the causeway. Seeing a winless situation, trash was being dropped faster than I would be able to pick it up, I surrendered and went to the cove by Oxbow Island to watch the Prothonotary Warblers. There I met Casey Tucker as he patiently waited for a male Prothonotary Warbler to perch where he could get an ideal picture. True to form it landed everywhere else. Casey and I watched as the male Prothonotary, a pair of Tree Swallows and Carolina Chickadees has a brash discussion regarding who was going to get the nest box. A few other birds around us included Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Gray Catbird, and Eastern Towhees.

Charlie Bombaci



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