I’m pleased to find that my energy and enthusiam for the things I like in life are returning now that I’m retired.
Yesterday morning after physical therapy (which I’m undergoing after having managed to injure the rotator cuff on my pitching arm), I went to Tower Grove Park, where I counted on the east side, just short of the central circle.
Within a few minutes of beginning I saw an accipiter, which I spent at least fifteen minutes on, trying to decide whether it was a Cooper’s or a Sharp-shinned. This was a small hawk, not much bigger than a kestrel (I exaggerate, but only slightly). If it was a Coopers’s, it was surely a male. Its nape looked pale, to me; I didn’t see clearly whether or not its hackles were raised.
It wasn’t a spectacular count; only 19 species. I was in the park from 9:00 to 10:40.
Tufted Titmice were absent until the end of the count, when I saw several. The last bird of the morning was a Hairy Woodpecker.
Here’s the list:
- Accipiter sp. (probable Cooper’s Hawk): 1
- Mourning Dove: 2
- Red-headed Woodpecker: 1
- Red-bellied Woodpecker: 2
- Downy Woodpecker: 2
- Hairy Woodpecker: 1
- Northern Flicker: 2
- Blue Jay: 2
- Tufted Titmouse: 3
- Carolina Chickadee: 2
- White-breasted Nuthatch: 2
- American Robin: 50
- European Starling: 8
- Northern Cardinal: 7
- Dark-eyed Junco: 20
- Brown-headed Cowbird: 1
- Red-winged Blackbird: 10
- House Finch: 2
- American Goldfinch: 3
Most of these are undercounted. As per the rules, I only counted as many as were in my field of vision at any time (with the exception of those that are sexually dimorphous).
I should mention that the Red-winged Blackbirds and House Finches were singing.