Keeney Park Trip Report – 5/14/2023

The morning started out with overcast skies and a smaller group than usual. Walk start time 8:08 a.m.

There were seven attendees in total counting the trip leader, myself.

We walked a clockwise route starting at the golf course parking lot moving west to south to east through a wooded trail and then north past the cricket fields to make a full circle back to our cars. This standard takes approximately 2.5 hours and our walk did go on for a typical 2 hours and 37 minutes. We had 46 species substantially less than last year’s 66 on Mother’s day.

The bird that caused the group the most difficulty to find, yet the most reward was a fun sighting of a single Scarlet Tanager. High up in a canopy it took some as long as ten minutes to locate the male tanager.

There were ten warbler species in all, including Blackburnian and Cape May. Seeing 2 Swainson’s thrushes in the pathway were a delight as well.

The most unexpected bird was a Grasshopper sparrow across from the parking lot when we first started out. It was under some shrubs and next to the adjacent golf course hole, and it flew up to a nearby branch during our approach.

Trip Leader, Annette Pasek