Cornflowers edge a field near the beginning of the car tour. TRIP NOTES and 70 species list in description.

It might bear repeating it's a 13 mile loop. You can stop the car and get out to bird at any time, and where there are trails, there are spots to park the car. Today, Aug. 4, I finally got around to getting the species list together from back in May. After taking out a double listing, adding a couple written in on the side, and fixing the numbering, we had a remarkable, for us, high count of "one-day-at-the-Hook", 70 species. (Expert birders could easily have got 125 species, I would think.)

Like I said before, I remember Karen and I working like dogs one year just to get to 58 species so, all things considered, on this day the weather was what did the trick. It was cool, breezy, no bugs. I can't say for sure if I remember right, but I believe the reason we went on the day we did was because it was supposed to be cool (keeps bugs away) and maybe was a nice day sandwiched in between some rainy ones. Doesn't matter what the reason now, we had a great time!

When we spend the day at the Hook we usually have plenty of time to go around the loop twice. This time we left (somewhat) early, started birding at just about 9 a.m. and left at whatever time it was when it started getting dark - I'm guessing 7:30-8:00ish. We were the last ones out. Birds galore.

Of note were Bob (or Paul) and Julie. We met them at one stop and since Julie was on crutches and stayed in the car we chatted a bit about the frustration of not being able to see the birds. Like birders generally do, we compared some notes and after talking to her, I'm 99.99% I saw a Yellow-breasted Chat. I thought that's what it was when I saw it. She said she'd seen it too, but... That was the second time that I've seen one, but still can't add to the list. That was a bummer, but the rest of the day sure made up for it. Bob and Julie are super birders. Here's an example, during one conversation Julie started talking about female Northern Parulas. Oy! :-D I'm happy if I see a Parula, never mind a female!

We met the couple again later on, before we took the Boardwalk Trail, we were scanning the woods across the street from there and had been rewarded with a few warblers. I was pretty sure of a Palm Warbler but, since they'd just pulled up behind us, I thought I'd have them double-check. We were tickled pink when they told us it was a neat find because it was really late for a Palm Warbler (they finish migrating in April sometime he said). We were there for 45 min. to an hour and in that time they shared the Palm Warbler with all the other birders that came along. I think we first met them at one of the big water areas. We were next to the car scanning for birds when Bob came up to us and told us he had two scopes set up and we were welcome to use one. Gifted at birding and gifted with a big heart. Good people.

Back to the species list, the first problem we ran into was a smaller than usual Tern. It's on the list as #12, an unidentified smallish Tern.

I don't remember where we saw #21, the Brown-headed Cowbird, but we'd been joking at not having seen one up to that point so we were glad to put it on the list.

The Indigo Buntings, #26, were a blast. They were in the road ahead of us, I counted 8 males in the road taking dust baths and a couple of females flitting between the grass and trees by the males. Later, on our return trip, I counted roughly 16-18 birds. Many less females than males and I don't remember seeing them bathing, just at the edge of road mostly and more flying back and forth across the road.

#29 (that's been taken off the list now), the imm male Blue Grosbeak was fun to ID. The first time we saw one of those. Well, who knows, maybe we've seen them before, but this is the first time we ID'd him.

#38 was the Palm Warbler and after we got on the Boardwalk we saw #42, thanks, as usual, to Karen and her great spotting eyes, a lifer for both of us, #42 the Clapper Rail. Secretive and, going by the coloring, understandable why it's hard to see down where the dead grassish stuff is, but out in the open for us. Then, after it didn't come out again, just a few yards down the trail, on the other side, there was another one but that one didn't stick around as long.

I wasn't sure about #48 but Karen managed to convince me of the Ring-billed Gull. :-)

#49 and #51, the Short-billed Dowitcher and Sea-side Sparrow were pointed out to us by Bob and Julie, I'm pretty sure. There were more peeps besides #58, the Semi-palmated Sandpiper, but it's been too long - and my eyes aren't right, so we contented ourselves with just that one.

Another big treat was the Bear Swamp Trail (I wrote the name down so I wouldn't forget it.) The first highlight for me was hearing the Red-eyed Robin from the parking lot. Then Karen went and chased the bird down. What happened was that I thought I was hearing a Red-eyed Vireo and when Karen came back she said she followed the singing and saw the Robin. (vbg) And, that's how the Red-eyed Robin came to be. :-D

Further down the trail proper we got looks at Ovenbird (64); White-throated Sparrow (66), there were at least three of those left; great, great looks at Black-throated Blue; and for me, at least, a more-than-a-minute look at #63, a gorgeous Swamp Sparrow, sitting out in the open in the filtered shade with a shaft of sunlight on him. I can still see him in my mind's eye. It'll be a while before I forget that.

The only other bird of note I remember on the way out was an imm. Great Blue Heron. We were driving past one of the big water areas on the way out of the Refuge. I was casually looking to my left, past Karen, and noted two Great Blues. Only thing was, one of them looked odd. I made Karen stop and we looked it up because I sure didn't have a clue. That was a neat thing to observe.

That's it for me. Maybe Karen can make corrections or wants to add more, I know she had more lifers.

The boring stuff:

1 Robin
2 Starling
3 Am Crow
4 House Sparrow
5 TV
6 Pigeon
7 Red-tailed Hawk
8 Common Grackle
9 Mallard
10 Osprey
11 Cardinal
12 unident smallish Tern
13 Red-winged BB
14 Laughing Gull
15 Black-bellied Plover
16 Blue Grosbeak
17 Barn Swallow
18 Semi-palmated Plover
19 Mockingbird
20 Tree Swallow
21 Brown-headed Cowbird
22 Purple Martin
23 Am Goldfinch
24 Rufous-sided Towhee
25 Catbird
26 Indigo Bunting
27 Eastern Kingbird
28 Common Yellowthroat
29 1st summer male Blue Grosbeak
30 White-eyed Vireo
31 Yellow Warbler
32 Baltimore Oriole
33 Wood Thrush
34 Red-breasted Nuthatch
35 House Wren
36 Yellow-rumped Warbler
37 N Flicker
38 Palm Warbler
39 Marsh Wren
40 Snowy Egret
41 Hairy Woodpecker
42 Clapper Rail
43 Great Egret
44 Great Blue Heron
45 Am Avocet
46 Green-winged Teal
47 Bald Eagle
48 Ring-billed Seagull
49 Short-billed Dowitcher
50 Forster's Tern
51 Sea-side Sparrow
53 Black-necked Stilt
54 Canada Goose
55 Dunlin
56 Lesser Yellowlegs
57 Ruddy Turnstone
58 Semi-palmated Sandpiper
59 Cormorant
60 Am Coot
61 Pine Warbler
62 Downy Woodpecker
63 Swamp Sparrow
64 Ovenbird
65 Black-throated Blue Warbler
66 White-throated Sparrow
67 Killdeer
68 Am Black Duck
69 Black-crowned Night Heron
70 Orchard Oriole
71 Willet
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70 species really...
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I have to take the first summer male Blue Grosbeak (#29) off the list because it's already counted (#16) and I'm not renumbering. :-D