Prairie Sparrow causes some momentary joy

It only took a couple of days of June to get to the 180 mark.  I finally was able to pick up some "expected" birds.

• Grasshopper Sparrow​
• Acadian Flycatcher
• Henslow's Sparrow
• Barred Owl
• Cerulean Warbler
• Sedge Wren

All in the expected spots.  A late Lesser Scaup was still hanging out at Duck Lake WTP.  

June did have some moments of odd songs that I thought might be of some new birds.  A really odd buzzy note was heard on 6/2 in the large field at Woodland Park.  Took me a while to find the bird, but it ended up being an alternate song for the Blue-winged Warbler.  

This was just one of the 86 birds I was able to see on 6/2.  16 more than the previous high for a day in June.  Gotta love the Jeep, as my final bird that day was Chimney Swifts flying around Downtown just as the sun was setting.  I would have never seen them without the top down.  

With this start I decided my goal would be to get to 100 birds in June.  Something I hadn't accomplished yet.  Taking some time off from Chaos helped.  I thought I had hit my mark with what sounded like a Prairie Warbler at Voorhees.  I had heard, but not seen, the Fort Custer bird so had some familiarity with the call.  It wasn't dead on, but I posted to a couple of sites and was told it was.  eBird reviewer was questioning it.  It was a definite rising call, but didn't go as high as the Prairie Warbler calls on eBird or Xeno-Canto.  A Field Sparrow across from the parking area had a rising call also, but started and ended much lower than then mystery bird.  The mystery song didn't have the buzzy call at the end.  I had found one eBird checklist with a pic and a recording that were similar.  I still wasn't convinced this wasn't a Prairie Warbler.  On my third trip I had the bird close, and singing often over the 90 minutes I was there.  A Field Sparrow flushed into a tree overhead.  Even without it behind leaves I could see it looked as though it was cocking its head back the same time I was hearing the same song.  Very frustrating but reinforces the lesson that the "plain" birds shouldn't be ignored and can still bring some "excitement" to every day birding.  

Below you can hear, and see, the rising song of the "Prairie Sparrow" and then the song of the Prairie Warbler.  Not as steep of a rise in the Field Sparrow.  It did start out higher than most of the other FISP I had been hearing, or could find on eBird.  Definitely an odd bird.  

I'll do a separate post with some observations of various Field Sparrows I recorded around that time period.  I dipped on Hooded Warbler at Whitehouse.  I need to just find a day to go to the zoo, as Nate Spala has had more than a few reports from there this year.  

The Osprey nest on F DR N has had one lone Osprey there, if I see any.  I don't think it is being used.  I had an Osprey over the house with a fish heading into the wind going West.  Later in June I had another Osprey carrying a fish taking off from the tower and headed in the same direction.  June did end up right at 100.  Luckily a Red-headed Woodpecker showed up flying back and forth to a probable nest got me to that number without needing the Prairie Warbler to get me there.  

I've decided to focus on iNaturalist sighting updates.  The AI for identification on photos is extremely helpful for all the various moths/insects that pop up each night here.  I'll have some highlights coming up including the largest moth I have ever seen.  These should keep me occupied until the "bug" hits with Fall migration.  Shorebird habit looks to be extremely thin again, so that will tend to be tough.  I don't have extreme confidence in hitting 200.