Some birding in a local park in Allentown
11th October - ALLENTOWN – LEHIGH COUNTRY PARK
After a leisurely morning John, Dawn and I went for a walk in a local park, the weather was bright and sunny and quite warm. The park trails follow the River Lehigh where there are several habitats including mixed deciduous woodlands, open grassland, the river itself and some dense shrubby cover. We had a good 5 mile walk with some interesting sightings, the park was full of joggers, fishermen, walkers, cyclist and us. Despite all this disturbance we saw quite a few species, a flock of Blue Jays started us off we also logged Great Blue Heron, Common Merganser, Red-tailed Hawk, Eastern Phoebe, Red-bellied and Downy Woodpeckers, White-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Hermit Thrush and many common species. One nice sighting was of an adult Bald Eagle which drifted over as we approached the end of the walk. Other animal species seen were Grey Squirrel, Chipmonk and a Northern Water-snake.
On the 12th three of us returned to the park, myself, Dawn and Fred, the weather was again warm and sunny, we repeated the walk of yesterday in Lehigh Park. There seemed to be less people and more birds on this trip, a direct correlation I wonder? We found several flycatchers and Identified two of them for certain, Eastern Phoebe and Least Flycatcher, others avoided the cameras and wouldn’t keep still enough. We also found Carolina Wren, Song, Chipping and White-throated Sparrow, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, Northern Flicker, American Robin (20+), House Finch, Cedar Waxwings, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Sharp-shinned Hawk and Red-tailed Hawk.