Vertebrate Zoology Journal #6- Centennial Park

Centennial Park

Thursday, September 15, 3:45- 5:30 PM

Temperature: 65 degrees Fahrenheit

Weather: Mostly cloudy, intermittent slight rain, winds out of northwest

This was almost a month ago.  That's how far behind I am on this blog.  Thankfully, there haven't been many field trips since, so I can finally play catch-up a bit. 

There was very little of note initially as we hiked, merely a few American Goldfinches flying off into the bushes around us and a few Chimney Swifts flying above us.  The most exciting things were the giant puffball mushrooms in the middle of the path, as seen above.  It wasn't until we got up next to the wooded edges of the place that we found a few Eastern Wood-Pewees, Black-capped Chickadees, Blue Jays, and one Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris):

On the edge of the woods, we had far more birds, including this Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe):

While walking in the very back corner of the lot, we were discussing Ring-necked Phesants, where we'd seen them, and how many we'd seen or heard at Centennial Park.  Suddenly, a large male pheasant jumped out in front of us and flew away into the prairie.  We were all a bit startled that the very bird we had been discussing had so suddenly appeared, and we were sure that our talking about the pheasant must have been why it appeared.  For the rest of the hike, I kept muttering, "Snowy Egret, Snowy Egret, Snowy Egret."  As Centennial Park is not a Southern marsh, none appeared.

A Common Yellowthroat, a Black-capped Chickadee, a Northern Cardinal, and several American Goldfinches (Spinus tristis) entertained us as we rounded the far back corner.  Looking south, we saw Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) in the dead trees:

During this whole trip, we saw a large number of Monarchs (Danaus plexippus), including this one.  I would have to say we saw at least fifty to a hundred Monarch butterflies in this one park:

The weather began to clear, and we could see the thunderheads moving off:

More Monarchs flocked to the omnipresent Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis):

We spooked a Cooper's Hawk as we continued along, eventually coming to a pond behind a suburb after a bit.  Here, large numbers of Leopard, Green, and Bullfrogs hid in the waters:

I flushed what is likely a Swamp Sparrow, based on the slight glimpse I had of it before it vanished.  While trying to unsuccessfully flush it again, I discovered this mysterious insect:

We  continued onwards, seeing more Chimney Swifts and American Goldfinches, before finding the warbler seen below:

Based on these two limited shots of the bird, our best guess is Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata).  It was a bad angle in poor lighting, so we don't know really what it was.

Just after finding the warbler, we stumbled across this nightmarish insect, a Wheel Bug (Arilus cristatus).  This lion of the bug world is unafraid of most anything, including people, as it flew off this leaf directly at all the students observing it, only for us to all back off in fright.  These bugs have a painful, if not actually medically dangerous, bite, and I wanted to avoid that.

Just when I thought the nightmares might be over, we found this large funnel-web spider:

A Tufted Titmouse, a Black-capped Chickadee, several more Chimney Swifts, six American Robins and one Northern Cardinal later, we came across this Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii), possibly the same one seen earlier.  It ran all up and down the hills, rarely flying.  We assumed that it was in pursuit of a few Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrels seen on the hill as well.

As we arrived back at the parking lot,  a couple Killdeer flew overhead, shortly followed by about ten American Goldfinches and fifteen Common Nighthawks (Chordeiles minor), real Fifth Orchids for a slow but fairly active trip.  There wasn't much of interest, but it was a solid outing.

Ebird Checklist:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31598714