Boren Park: Birds! Birds! Birds!: Journal Entry 6

   

The two sketches and their companion photographs (above and below) were taken in Boren Park before the coming of an autumn storm.  It was very difficult to photograph this specimen let alone sketch it in the field because high winds seemed to scatter the birds before I was able to get a good  look or decent photograph.  What cannot be seen, is that these birds were part of a larger flock of tiny birds that were moving from tree to tree.  This large group  of what I believe to be Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapilla), because of their distinct chickadee-dee-dee-dee call, were found at the top of the tree canopy.  However, I was never able to get close enough to make out any markings of coloration.  I followed them around for a while  but was not able to actually observe them feeding due to their  distance from my viewpoint.   This flock of birds seemed highly social in that their appeared to be a lot of chatter from the flock.  Eventually the winds drove them out of view. 

The photograph and sketch above are of a black Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) that was part of a very large group of crows.  I believe a flock of crows is called a murder and this murder was mobbing somewhere in the vicinity of the park.  I was not able to determine their exact location of where the mob was assembling but their distinct "caaw" sound led me to look up.  Since there were so many of them I decided to try to sketch  them as they flew overhead. 

The sketch and photograph above are of what  I believe to be a Brown Creeper (Certhia americana). This little guy was very fast but was noticeably found creeping along the trunk of  a tall big leaf maple tree.  I had to refer to the photograph because this specimen had disappeared so fast that I was barely was able to get it into my photograph.  From what I could tell it has a white marking on both sides of its head with a dark head and back.  It was most likely probing the moss and bark on this tree for insects.