Field Report: Evansburg State Park, June 7, 2013

On Saturday, June 7, Brian Henderson lead 7 people on a bird walk at Evansburg State Park. The remnants of Tropical Storm Andrea had passed through the night before but the group persevered through the mud and puddles to spot 53 bird species. The highlight of the walk was a Yellow-breasted Chat by the Lesher Road powerline cut. The complete list, as submitted to eBird follows:

Great Blue Heron  3

Turkey Vulture  1

Buteo sp.  1 (Brief silhouetted look only. Red-tailed, more than likely.)

Mourning Dove  10

Great Horned Owl  2 (Two fledges observed flying across a field. Still had white heads, though the rest of them looked "adult".)

Chimney Swift  1

Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  9

Downy Woodpecker  5

Hairy Woodpecker  2

Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)  2

Pileated Woodpecker  2

Eastern Wood-Pewee  2

Acadian Flycatcher  4 (Well-spaced along the creek. Most heard singing. Several seen well.)

Eastern Phoebe  4 (Family group observed together.)

Great Crested Flycatcher  1

Eastern Kingbird  4 (two pairs)

White-eyed Vireo  1

Red-eyed Vireo  5

Blue Jay  8

American Crow  2

crow sp.  3 (2 flyby's, one heard that was probably a juvenile American Crow)

Tree Swallow  2

Carolina Chickadee  11

Tufted Titmouse  4

White-breasted Nuthatch  3

House Wren  8

Carolina Wren  7

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  3

Eastern Bluebird  2

Wood Thrush  7

American Robin  13

Gray Catbird  17

Northern Mockingbird  1

Brown Thrasher  1

European Starling  4

Cedar Waxwing  17

Ovenbird  7

Common Yellowthroat  5

Prairie Warbler  3 (One visited the same concealed location twice. Each time, baby birds called.)

Yellow-breasted Chat  1 (Rare breeder (these days) in Montco. Singing its distinctively strange song in a more overgrown portion of the Lesher Rd powerline cut. Seen by all group members. Chunky bird, far bigger than a Common Yellowthroat, with bright yellow throat/breast, olive back, white belly, white stripe over eye, long tail and thick, un-warbler-y bill. Good habitat.)

Eastern Towhee  9

Chipping Sparrow  2

Field Sparrow  13

Song Sparrow  3

Scarlet Tanager  1

Northern Cardinal  14

Indigo Bunting  4

Red-winged Blackbird  2

Common Grackle  9

Brown-headed Cowbird  4

Orchard Oriole  1

Baltimore Oriole  5

House Finch  1

American Goldfinch  2

passerine sp.  3

The walk leader would like to ask that anyone seeking out the Yellow-breasted Chat to please NOT play recordings. Chats are rare breeders in Montgomery County and we would hate to have a potential breeder driven away by mistaking a recorded call for the call of a bird marking its territory.