Early Wildflowers at Southeast Park

Common Chickweed
Originally uploaded by toadshade

I went out to stretch my sore muscles from yesterday and get a glimpse of the changing season. Still not much happening but I did get a few shots of some late Winter wildflowers. The Common Chickweed and Bitter Cress (which may be growing in your yard right now) were taking advantage of the sun's rays and longer days. These two get overlooked a lot since they're fairly small and fit into what most people would call 'weeds.' Another early bloomer was the Field Pansy (Viola bicolor) which grows in profusion in the fields in Springtime. There ware a few Dandelions out there along with a Veronica or two. The Partridgeberries were just putting out their red berries and hopefully we'll get a glimpse of their white fringed flower in the near future.

The birding was good with the Yellow-rumped Warbler dominating. Not the huge flocks of Robins like last week which may be a sign that they're pairing off to mate. I hiked 4 miles. The temperature was in the mid 60s and it was a beautiful day. Bird list below:

Location: Southeast Park
Observation date: 3/7/10
Number of species: 23

Mallard 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Mourning Dove 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Blue Jay 3
American Crow 3
Carolina Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 2
Brown-headed Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 2
Eastern Bluebird 4
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 2
Brown Thrasher 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler 15
Pine Warbler 1
Eastern Towhee 2
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 5
Northern Cardinal 2
House Finch 4

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

toadshade