OFNC Outing to Constance Bay – Part I

Jeff Skevington led a full-day nature outing in the Constance Bay area on Saturday, April 30.  We began the day at his house at 8:00 a.m. where we spent an enjoyable 15 minutes in his backyard watching the birds.  He still has a good number of Common Redpolls visiting his feeders, and other yard birds included a pair of Eastern Phoebes, Dark-eyed Juncos, American Goldfinches and Chipping Sparrows.  Merlins nest in a tree close to his house (oh to have a yard like his!), but were absent while I was there.

Across the road we could hear Pine Warblers singing high up in the trees.  Jeff played a recording of their fast, musical trill, and immediately one Pine Warbler flew out of the trees toward us to investigate.  Jeff explained that the first warblers back are the older males staking out breeding sites, and they will readily respond if they hear another male singing within their territory.  The Pine Warbler landed in the tree closest to us, hopped down a couple of branches until he was directly overhead, then flew off once Jeff stopped playing the recording.