Decided to check out this local park about a mile from the house. I like to go there in Winter and Fall to catch the Field Sparrows and Phoebes. It's about a half mile walk around a manmade pond with a few swampy areas that attract the sparrows. It's mainly a tennis park but does provide a glimpse of nature very close to home when I don't have time to do anything else. This Black-eyed Susan pictured was planted by the park service and I included it because it caught the rays of the setting sun quite nicely. The trees have leafed out so there was very little in the way of blooming wildflowers. What I did find was Coreopsis major and heliotropium amplexicaule, which most people around mistake for Verbena (at least according to Porcher and the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas). These were growing on the edge of a small field near the park entrance. There were some Daisy Fleabane also and I saw some small Sassafras trees just coming up.
Even though it's small, the park does offer several different environments. It has plenty of Red Oaks, Sweetgum, and Hickory along with the Live Oaks. The pond is basically still water and doesn't attract many birds even though I've seen a Lesser Scaup there once and Green Herons seem to showing up more frequently. It's always good for a Pie-billed Grebe or two. Red-winged Blackbirds are there along with Orchard Orioles in Summer. Was only there for a minute and IDed 2 Eastern Bluebirds and a Mississippi Kite. Have a birding program for my iPhone that matched up perfectly with the sounds of the Bluebirds. Was easy to look up also. May visit this park for an update in a few days since I didn't get the chance to check out the fields and Live Oaks on the other side of the pond. A pretty good 24 minute stop over on the way to a meeting.
Happy 4th Everyone!
toadshade
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment