Birdwalk Highlights for 9/19: Bird Safe Open House Tour, Durham.

Our Saturday Morning Birdwalk this week took place on our property in Durham as part of our Bird Safe Open House event.

It was a productive birdwalk too, showing off nicely the active (and safe) feeding station, the quality of the habitat we protected, and some of our habitat enhancements underway. In addition to locally-breeding birds, we even had a few early migrants, highlighted by a cooperative female BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER, a TENNESSEE WARBLER, and a relatively conspicuous NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH.

Other Neotropical migrants that more likely bred on or near the property included 6 GRAY CATBIRDS, 2 AMERICAN REDSTARTS, 5 YELLOW WARBLERS, 3 BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLERS, and 3 RED-EYED VIREOS. Furthermore, at least 4 RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS were constantly zipping around, while a BELTED KINGFISHED briefly visited our pond.

Resident and short-distant migrants, most of which were at our near the feeders and adjacent "yard" including at least 20 RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS, 20+ AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES, about 12 BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES, 10 SONG SPARROWS, 6+ CHIPPING SPARROWS, 8 PURPLE FINCHES, 3 DOWNY and 2 HAIRY WOODPECKERS, 2 BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS, and 4 TUFTED TITMICE.