Field Trip Report: Linne Woods
Photo by Vinod Babu.
by Vinod Babu
May 5, 2024
The trip to Linne Woods started well for me before any of the participants even arrived as a number of birds put on a show in the parking area: Baltimore Orioles, a singing Northern Waterthrush, and a Mourning Dove doing a display flight, gliding in a wide circle around the parking lot. As folks arrived, we started trying to spy the waterthrush and other singers, to no avail, but we were amazed by a Broad-winged Hawk flying close overhead. The bird perched in a distant tree, allowing some of us to get distant photos and even walk up to it!
As we began the walk along the paved trail, we continued hearing birds but not seeing them. This changed as we got close to the end of that trail, as Nathan Kuhlman was able to get bins on a singing Wood Thrush! We luxuriated in the songs of Wood Thrush, Veery, and Black-throated Green Warblers. We then took the woodland trail down into the bottomland—rather muddy, but everyone was a good sport about it! Here we passed a maple with a shattered top. From the hole in the trunk came loud begging calls, perhaps fledglings? We never got the answer to that. We got to the end of the trail, crossed the stream on Beckwith Road and took the return trail back on the other bank—much higher and drier!
Indigo Bunting. Photo by Nathan Kuhlman.
Here our luck suddenly changed as we immediately got excellent looks at Indigo Buntings, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and some thrushes in short order. We were able to look at a Veery and a Swainson's Thrush almost side by side. As we proceeded on the trail, we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a warbler flock—participants got good looks at Northern Parulas and Blue-winged, Black-and-white, Palm, Blackburnian, Nashville, and Black-throated Green Warblers, and the birds wouldn't leave! Some of us had a moment of “birder panic,” where we couldn't decide where to look for fear of missing something else! Scarlet Tanagers were very close to us, with two males vying for the attention of a female bird at one point. We heard and briefly saw Yellow-throated and Blue-headed Vireos, and a Least Flycatcher made an appearance. A group of Eastern Kingbirds followed this flock at the top of the canopy. It was amazing to be in the midst of a mixed-species feeding flock consisting of warblers, vireos, woodpeckers, nuthatches, flycatchers, and gnatcatchers.
Scarlet Tanager. Photo by Nathan Kuhlman.
With great reluctance, we plodded down this trail and made a detour to the prairie area of the preserve. Here we heard Common Yellowthroats and Yellow Warblers. As we made our way back to the parking lot, the sun came out, the day warmed noticeably and we got to see Turkey Vultures and Red-tailed and Broad-winged Hawks in flight!
We ended our morning with a respectable 68 species, including 16 species of warblers. I hope all participants got to see at least a few of these gems!