Mohawk Park - Oxley Nature Center - Tulsa, OK - July 18, 2010

Location: Mohawk Park--Oxley Nature Center

Map: http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=36.225304,-95.896311&spn=0.016514,0.027509&t=h&z=15&msid=103228297516276567813.00048bbe08a47b48af040


Observation date: 7/18/10

Number of species: 14

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias   1

Great Egret - Ardea alba   6

Snowy Egret - Egretta thula   1

Little Blue Heron - Egretta caerulea   1

Red-tailed Hawk - Buteo jamaicensis   1

American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos   6

Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica   2

Carolina Chickadee - Poecile carolinensis   1

Tufted Titmouse - Baeolophus bicolor   1

Carolina Wren - Thryothorus ludovicianus   1

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerulea   3

Prothonotary Warbler - Protonotaria citrea   1

Northern Cardinal - Cardinalis cardinalis   6

Indigo Bunting - Passerina cyanea   3
 
    I got a somewhat late start Sunday morning (by Birding standards), so it was quite hot when I arrived at Mohawk Park.
 
   I didn't see many birds during the first part of the walk - I could only hear a couple of crows. This made me worried that most of the birds would be resting and trying to avoid the mid-day heat. I only saw a pair of Northern Cardinals when I walked across Blackbird Marsh.
 
  From the obervation deck along Lake Sherry I could see a couple of Great Egrets fishing along the edges of the lake. I was thrilled to be able to watch a single Snowy Egret thrash about in the shallows in search of a fish or small amphibian. Snowy Egrets are so animated and active - a great contrast to the "statue fishing" methods of the other larger wading birds. At one point the Snowy Egret took flight and landed on a fallen tree near the shore of an island in Lake Sherry. I heard a series of honks and hisses coming from the fallen tree and spotted a lone Little Blue Heron perched there.
 
  I spent so much time watching the wading birds of Lake Sherry that some of the passerine birds in the area were unaware of my presence. A single Blue-gray Gnatcatcher was bounding along the branches of a tree near the observation deck. At one point the microbird was withing 3 feet of my head; oblivious to me and in search of some hiding insects. A Carolina Chickadee flew past the observation deck and landed on a nearby tree - also unaware of me.
 
   I walked from the observation deck to the Blue Heron Loop. During the walk I spotted several Northern Cardinals, a pair of American Crows, and a single Tufted Titmouse. I didn't see or hear many birds during the walk around the Blue Heron Loop, excpet for a small group of American Crows that burst noisily into flight when I passed their perch.
 
   As I began to head back to the car I spotted a Prothonotary Warbler perched on the lower branches of a tree. Such a dazzling warbler to see. It is also a bird that has an interesting place in American History:
 
The prothonotary warbler became known in the 1940s as the bird that, in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, established a connection between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss. Chambers had testified that Hiss enjoyed bird-watching, and once bragged about seeing a prothonotary warbler. Hiss later testified to the same incident, causing many members to become convinced of the pairs' acquaintance.
 
-Photo courtesy of Dominic Sherony, via Wikipedia.org



-SPQ 7/19/2010