Date: January 12, 2003

Time: 8:10-11:00 AM

Forest edge and fields -- loop road around Big Oak Woods (BW), wet areas at south end, North Fields (NF)

Chilly, sunny, calm

Highlights -- a sleepy Barred Owl perched only 5-6 m above ground, Hooded Mergansers on the golf course pond, a skulking Winter Wren, plus good looks at kinglets, thrushes, thrashers, woodpeckers -- but surprisingly few sparrows

CICONIIFORMES
Great Blue Heron	1	adult on a pond in the golf course
Turkey Vulture	2	soaring
ANSERIFORMES
Hooded Merganser	2	a pair on a pond in the golf course
FALCONIFORMES
Red-tailed Hawk	2	over BOW and WS (one immature and later one adult)
CHARADRIIFORMES
Ring-billed Gull	25	circling a pond in the golf course and flying northward overhead later
STRIGIFORMES
Barred Owl	1	allowed close views
PICIFORMES
Red-bellied Woodpecker	1	male
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	female
Downy Woodpecker	1	tapping on slender twigs as usual
Hairy Woodpecker	1	in trees by the parking lot briefly
Northern Flicker	30	including at least 25 that flushed from the ground in the North Fields
PASSERIFORMES
JAY AND CROW FAMILY
Blue Jay	8	including one imitating a Red-shouldered Hawk briefly
American Crow	4	on campus
CHICKADEE FAMILY
Carolina Chickadee	10	several small groups or pairs, some fed on seed stalks in old fields, also one sang briefly
Tufted Titmouse	2	no singing
NUTHATCH FAMILY
White-breasted Nuthatch	1	watched creeping up and down trunks and branches
Brown-headed Nuthatch	2	heard near parking lot
WREN FAMILY
Carolina Wren	6	no singing
Winter Wren	1	skulking under brush beside BO
MIMIC FAMILY
Northern Mockingbird	2
Brown Thrasher	4	including one digging in leaves beside the path
THRUSH FAMILY
Hermit Thrush	6	including two feeding by listen-hop-peck method
Eastern Bluebird	6	some brief nasal calls
KINGLET FAMILY
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	3	never sat still, usually in thickets
Golden-crowned Kinglet	3	also never sat still, usually in or near pines, two males showed red on the crown
WOOD-WARBLER FAMILY
Yellow-rumped Warbler	3	in drab winter plumage (except for the often-concealed yellow rump -- or butt)
CARDINAL FAMILY
Northern Cardinal	10
SPARROW FAMILY
Rufous-sided Towhee	1	near the parking lot
Dark-eyed Junco	6
Field Sparrow	1
White-throated Sparrow	15	along edges of roads
Swamp Sparrow	6	skulking in wet fields, only heard
Song Sparrow	6	pumping their tails in flight
FINCH FAMILY
American Goldfinch	4	flying overhead

NOTES

The Hooded Mergansers were a first for BIOL 114 at Mason Farm, and the Barred Owl was the tamest (or sleepiest) owl ever found by BIOL 114.

The ice storm in early December had left one large tree down across the road at the southern end of BW.   The beaver impoundment south of BW seems about like last winter -- backed up to the gravel road.   The large field on the northern side of BW and the smaller one on the western side had been plowed in autumn -- large areas of Scirpus grew in low places with standing water.

Sparrows were less numerous than in any year in the previous two decades.   I wonder where they are?