A short stop at Bucktown Marsh

Today I stopped by the Bucktown Marsh on the way to work.

As before, a vocal Loggerhead Shrike greeted me from the picnic area.

Immediately in front of the parking area, on the scrub edge, a little party of birds gathered to fuss at my swishing:  3 Common Yellowthroats, a Marsh Wren, a Northern Waterthrush, and my first Swamp Sparrow of the fall.

Not much along the cut path along the lakeshore, until the far end of the thicket it passes through, where there were three more Swamp Sparrows and two more Yellowthroats.

Today I walked out to the tip of the peninsula for the first time in a couple years- there is good weedy habitat along both the lake and harbor edges of it.  On the walk out I put up three Savannah Sparrows- my first of the fall.  An immature (white) Little Blue Heron took off from the rip-rap shore, as did two Spotted Sandpipers, which  flew  in an arc over the water with their usual ringing weet weet weet and stiff wingbeats.  From the tip, I counted 115 Forster's Terns sitting on pylons (etc) across the way at West End, accompanied by about an equal number of Laughing Gulls and five or so Royal Terns.

I walked the scrubby harbor edge on the way back to the car, which looks great but produced nothing today.  The three Savannahs had ventured out onto the open ground in the center of the peninsula, and flitted back into the lakeside weeds at my approach.

"Land's End" sorts of places like this often seem especially likely to produce oddities, so it is a tantalizing spot. I will be back.

Peter

for a copy of Birding Made Easy-New Orleans, email me at birding.made.easy.new.orleans@gmail.com, or look for it at the Maple Street or Garden District Book Shops.

I will be having a book signing at Longvue Gardens on Saturday October 26, when I will also lead a birdwalk on grounds.  Hope to see you there!