Greenstone Hollow Walk 10/9 - Trip Report

['Christopher Fisher' via HASBirding]

Trip Report for Greenstone Hollow Walk,  Oct 9, 2021

Leaders - Diane & Chris Fisher

Participants - 18 ( including leaders)

Diane & Chris Fisher East Granby Members

Jennifer Frank East Granby Member

Niki Bonnett Simsbury Guest

Larry Lunden West Hartford Member

Andrew Beauregard East Granby Guest (joined online later the same day)

Paula Hankard Glastonbury Member

Barry Marsh West Hartford Member

Scott Lockwood Simsbury Member

Faith Weidner Simsbury Member

Randy & Ann Barton Farmington Members

Gina Decker Winsted Member

Merle Yoder Granby Member

Catherine Delasco East Granby Member

Polly & Steve Parker W. Simsbury Members

Marcia Reno West Hartford Member

Weather - Overcast, upper 50’s to low 60’s

Length of Trip/Terrain - Approximately 8am - 11am - about 1.9 miles total.  Terrain was mostly flat mowed paths, easy walking - some wet areas.  At about 9:45 we returned to the starting point after birding the trails immediately adjacent to Ridge Blvd on both sides.  At that point some people had to leave.  9 of us continued on to the back of the property.

Highlights of Birds Seen - We saw 21 species of birds which was reported on e-bird.  We started with several large flocks of birds flying around.  These included Red-winged Blackbirds, Starlings and Cedar Waxwings.  We had good looks at the Northern Flicker in the scope and the White-throated Sparrows had returned en masse!  Merle Yoder, a photographer and member, stayed afterwards on his own and also photographed Common Yellowthroat and Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  They were not included in the “official” list since they weren’t seen during the trip.  

Here is the bird list as recorded by Larry Lunden

Canada Goose  20
Great Blue Heron  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  1
Blue Jay  13
Black-capped Chickadee  3
Carolina Wren  2
European Starling  60
Gray Catbird  3
Northern Mockingbird  1
American Robin  6
Cedar Waxwing  45
House Finch  2
American Goldfinch  5
White-throated Sparrow  25
Song Sparrow  1
Eastern Towhee  3
Red-winged Blackbird  90
Yellow-rumped Warbler  7
Northern Cardinal  2

Miscellaneous - The “business cards” worked well.  One non-member used it to join that afternoon!  A young man delivering newspapers just before the trip started stopped to ask what we were doing.  He expressed interest and we gave him a card as well!  One of the primary goals of this trip is to introduce people to Greenstone Hollow, familiarize them with the trails and encourage them to come back on their own.  Several people indicated they planned to do this regularly.   Finally, we had some good photographers on this trip.  Merle Yoder shared some of his images which I’m including below.  

Young Cedar Waxwing

Common Yellowthroat (after the walk had finished)

Ruby-crowned Kinglet (After the walk had finished)

White-throated Sparrow

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Members taking pictures of the fall color behind Blackbird Marsh.

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