An Hour in Lucy Park

Photo by Manjith Kainickjara, Wikimedia Commons

I haven't birded Lucy Park much over the past year or so. My favorite areas for birding have been cleared out for a flood control project, so the little dickie birds that used to be so plentiful there are not. However, there are still some areas with some good cover, so I decided to give Lucy Park an hour of my time on Sunday morning. I walked the front of the trail from the entrance to the park to the Falls and then back down to where the clearing out starts near the bridge to the RV park, and then some inside the RV park. Then I took a quick drive by the duck pond, in case the wood ducks were there again (they weren't.)

I can't say I had great luck, but I did better than I expected. I was especially happy to come across a pair of Carolina wrens. The male was singing his little heart out and his lady friend was scoping out a tangle of vines around a downed tree limb for a possible nesting site. Another special treat was a small flock of yellow-rumped warblers. I haven't seen them much this year, so that was a nice touch to the morning.

It was a beautiful morning--clear, sunny, very little breeze and about 60 degrees. It doesn't get much better than that. Here are the birds I saw: Canada goose, blue-winged teal, mallard, gadwall, northern shoveler, white-winged dove, rock pigeon, turkey vulture, red-tailed hawk, red-bellied woodpecker, blue jay, cardinal, eastern phoebe, yellow-rumped warbler, northern mockingbird, Carolina chickadee, American robin, tufted titmouse, black-crested titmouse, Carolina wren, American goldfinch, dark-eyed junco, fox sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, great-tailed grackle, red-winged blackbird, European starling, and house finch.

All in all a nice little walk.

Good birding!

Sunday Morning in Lucy Park

I haven't gone birding in Lucy Park in a while. Lucy Park is closer to my house than Lake Wichita Park, but when I leave the driveway, I turn more often to the lake and the Chat Trail, where it seems there are more birds. The last several times I have been to Lucy Park, the birding has been average, and comments from other bird club members makes me think they are having little luck there as well.

However, seeing the Northern Waterthrush yesterday got me excited about the possibility of seeing warblers on their fall migration, although it is a little early. Lucy Park should be perfect as it is a riparian woodlands habitat. I was obviously too early as I didn't see any warblers. Unfortunately, I didn't see much of anything. I used to bird Lucy Park almost every weekend and often saw good birds (which infers other birds are bad, which isn't the case, but fellow birders will know what I mean.)

Anyway, today I walked the circle trail and also the path to the waterfall. I didn't take the pathway to Williams Park today as it was getting just too hot for that long of a walk. What struck me was how quiet the woods were--there were not many birds singing this morning, with the exception of an exuberant Carolina wren.

I followed his call and of course, when I was close, he stopped singing. I sat down on one of the large flat rocks along the trail to drink some water and wait for him to sing again to get a look. A few minutes later, a little brown bird flew out of the cedar tree to another tree about 10 yards aways. I moved down the trail and was able to watch the wren sing away. When the wren moved, he must have crossed the line into another wren's territory, because less than a minute after he started singing, another Carolina wren came flying from the other direction and lighted on the same tree. He was obviously agitated and was giving the singing wren a piece of his mind.

Besides the wren, my walk was uneventful. I saw the following birds: mourning dove, white-winged dove, Eurasian collared dove, blue jay, cardinal, Mississippi kite, purple martin, pigeon, Carolina chickadee, mockingbird, European starling, robin, tufted titmouse, red-winged blackbird, house finch, and cattle egret.

There were lots of butterflies and dragonflies/damselflies. If I had been looking for those, it would have been a great morning. But it was nice to get out and get a little exercise before settling down to work on the computer the rest of the day.

Wrens

I have been told that wrens nesting in the yard is good luck. Anyone know the origin of that idea? Since I have a pair of Bewick's wrens nest in my yard every year, I am willing to believe the tale. We can all use a little more luck.

I enjoy watching these little birds. Talk about a Napoleonic complex--these guys have a lot of attitude crammed into a little body.

Although Carolina Wrens are common in this area, I have rarely heard them in my yard--I assumed because the Bewick's were keeping them out. I have occasionally had Carolina Wrens and Bewick's Wrens at the feeders in the winter, but most birds seem to get along better outside of breeding season. However, a couple of weeks ago, I started hearing Carolina Wrens when I went out back. I was hoping that did not mean they had run out the Bewicks. I worried for several days, but can now say I have seen and heard both types of wrens around the yard now, so apparently they can get along.

Other than the song, to me the best way to tell the two birds apart is the brighter color of the Carolina and the distinctive outside white feathers of the Bewick's. I don't know if it is an accurate observation, but it has also seemed to me that the Bewick's has a bit more of an attitude. Of course, all wrens display a lot of attitude, but it seems to me the little Bewick has it in spades.

There is some question whether the Carolina Wren and the Bewick's Wren may compete. If so, the Bewick's appears to be the one losing the competition as their numbers are in decline. There is documented impact of House Wrens on nesting of the Bewick's, but we don't have nesting House Wrens in our area, so is not an issue here.

I look forward to watching several more seasons of wrens fledging in the yard and giving me continuing good luck.