Eagle Creek Park – September 13, 2025
Ten participants joined field trip leaders Lisa and Randy Vanderbilt on September 13 to search out fall migrants at Eagle Creek Park. It was a sunny and warm day when the trip began at the Marina which is often a “migrant trap” for birds on their travels. On this day the Cape May Warbler was in abundance with 12 seen in all. Other warbler highlights were a late Yellow Warbler and a nice look at a Wilson’s Warbler. The group very much enjoyed getting to hear and see the Red-breasted Nuthatch. At this location we had 11 species of warbler in all.
The Skating Pond was our next birding spot. The highlights there were two Veeries and three Ovenbirds. Although it was not as “birdie” as we would have expected, we did manage to see five species of warbler, including the Ovenbirds, Northern Waterthrush, American Redstart, Magnolia, and Chestnut-sided, along with the usual expected birds for that area.
As the time was nearly 11:00am, some participants needed to leave, but the rest went on to Circle Drive to see what might be there. The group saw five species of warbler and five types of woodpeckers. A highlight was a beautiful view of a Blackburnian Warbler. We had three empidonax flycatchers but were only able to identify one as a Least Flycatcher. The Circle Drive area netted 26 species.
For the morning, we had 15 species of warblers in all. The group enjoyed the day with good birds and good company. Much thanks goes to Lisa and Randy Vanderbilt for their time and expertise in helping us search out all the migrants and providing us with great leadership.