Brown Creepers Put On a Show at Bles Park

Brown Creeper.
Photo by Scott Harris

Overall it was a great day both for weather and birds at the monthly bird walk at Bles Park on November 19. It was sunny and warmed up quickly for the 12 people lead by John Denice and Scott Harris. After meeting in the parking lot, we moved over to the small swampy area and got a nice look at a Swamp Sparrow. This allowed folks see the difference in the head and the rufous sides. We then crossed back across the parking lot and in the field near the soccer fields, we got a nice look at a Brown Thrasher. We did not see the Blue Winged Teal that was recently spotted in the pond, but we did get great looks at a Red-shouldered Hawk, kingfisher, mallards and a Green-winged Teal.

Along the river we could see a hawk with mostly his back to us, but we could just make out a sliver of his belly and see the belly band for our first Red-tailed Hawk. We continued behind the pond and were lucky enough to watch a group of Brown Creepers for probably 10 to 15 minutes as they moved from tree to tree very near the path. There were also a few groups of Golden-crowned Kinglets. We continued down to check out Selden’s Landing where we saw crows mobbing two Red-tailed Hawks and got a fantastic look at a four-year-old Bald Eagle perched very near us. It was nice to see some white feathers on it, and the head still had some dark feathers. Heading back to the parking lot, we got to see more Golden-crowned Kinglets. We saw at total of 10 during the walk and seeing a few more was a great way to end. All total we had 43 species of birds.