Trip Report: Underbirded Parks Series - Columbus Park - 2012 September 30

Led by Ethan and Aaron Gyllenhaal, 18 birders helped make Chicago's Columbus Park a bit less underbirded on Sundaymorning. They were rewarded with 54 identified species of birds, plus aparakeet-like bird that was not a Monk Parakeet. This flyover had palesecondaries, was overall smaller than a Monk Parakeet, and had a shorter tail.  It looked similar to White-winged Parakeet, and we'll keep an eye out for it onfuture visits to the park.

Other interesting sightings included a PINEWARBLER; newly arrived BROWN CREEPER, HERMIT THRUSHES and DARK-EYED JUNCO;  aMARSH WREN that reluctantly gave a few good views to the crowd and a WINTER WRENthat only gave a private showing; RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER (which only visitColumbus during migration); and a midair battle between a COOPER"S HAWK and aAMERICAN CROW. Other than the abundant YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, we had to workhard to get the warbler total up to eight species. There also were two speciesof nuthatches, both kinglets, three species of thrushes (counting robins), andfive species of sparrows.

All the numbers from Sunday, plus monthly andyearly figures for Columbus Park, are on our blog: http://neighborhoodnature.wordpress.com/about/our-ebird-lists-for-columbus-park-chicago/