More local avifauna

Just a quick note here. I have reached 105 birds. I saw a house wren over at the farm across the street from work when I was with kids in the Fossils to Feathers class. I then also spotted a ring billed gull at canal park in Duluth when I was up taking a weekend backpacking trip with Chelsey. Pathetic that that was to only bird I saw. I purposefully stopped there to see the gulls as I was frustrated I missed every other bird on the trip. We camped real close to the river there weren't any birds. Chelsey thought it was because the loud sound of the rapids would drown out their tiny voices and so they keep further away. That's a good thought. I did hear a flock of jays come through the tops of the trees but they were too fast and the lighting too poor to make a good ID.

Two fun birds came today. Everyone has been seeing blue grey gnatcatchers down by the driveway loop so I headed out at lunch. I heard them and finaly saw a bird moving through the trees. It spiraled down (just like Paul described a gnatcatcher doing) and caught an insect. It was now at eye level so I looked though the binoculars and to my surprise, it was a chestnut-sided warbler! It was a female in first winter plumage. How's that for a sign that summer is ending!

At the end of the day I went out with Paul and we saw a bunch of the blue-grey gnatcathcers.