Mead Gardens, 4/24/2012

American Redstart

This morning I had to go pick up my pool pump at the repair shop, but, rather than going to Lake Lilly again, I decided to drive a little farther and go to Mead Gardens.  This is dangerous business, though, since I only had about an hour to be there before the repair shop opened, and then I had to go to work.  It's awful hard to leave Mead Gardens after only an hour.  Things started kind of slow, but about 15 minutes before I had to go, things started to really pick up around the Azalea bushes.  There I saw several American Redstarts, one Prairie Warbler, one Cape May Warbler, and about 3 Northern Parula. I also saw at least one (probably 2) Swainson's Thrush there. By the shore I found one Common Yellowthroat and a couple Great Crested Flycatchers.  They were very active, and about the time I turned to leave, they were feeding on insects.  I didn't have time to photograph them with their prey in their mouths; unfortunately, I had to go pick up my pool pump and earn a living.

Cape May Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Great Crested Flycatcher

I suspect there was a lot more there this morning, but here's what I saw after about an hour of birding:

Wood Duck 2
Brown Pelican 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Tricolored Heron 1
White Ibis 3
Turkey Vulture 1
Mourning Dove 3
Chimney Swift 3
Great Crested Flycatcher 4
Blue Jay 2
Purple Martin 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
Swainson's Thrush 2
Gray Catbird 5
Common Yellowthroat 1
American Redstart 5
Cape May Warbler 1
Northern Parula 3
Palm Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 1
Northern Cardinal 8