ALLLENTOWN - LeHIGH LOCAL PARK
This will be the last BLOG from America as today Sunday 29th it is pouring with rain and we shall not be going out birding.
Yesterday afternoon John and I met up with Peter, another of John's local friends, to go birding at a local park. The weather was wonderful, nice and sunny with good light to start. lehigh Park has a wide creek running through it which is stocked with rainbow trout and it attracts a good number of birds along the tree-line banks and marshy scrub. We had a lovely couple of hours watching a good selection of species. Common Merganser (aka Goosander) was often seen along the creek along with Great Blue Heron and Mallards.
The creek in LeHigh Park
Woodpeckers are always common in parks over here, we saw several Red-bellied, a couple of Downy and a single Haiy Woodpecker. Small flocks of American Robins, Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Starlings were gathering for a pre-roost chatter. We also saw a gathering of Cedar Waxings, House Finches and American Crows.
Great Blue Heron
Other birds of note were Black Vulture, Raven, Red-tailed Hawk, Song and White-throated Sparrows, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Black-capped Chickadee.
the well camouflaged Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
We left the park at 6pm just as it was getting dark, Peter stayed for dinner so we spent some time on the porch drinking beer and exchanging stories of our long-passed youth.
record shot of Cedar Waxwing