A Walk Around White Hall Rd.

This afternoon (Saturday, 1/22) between 3:15 and 4:15 p.m., Dave Rosgen, Samantha Foster, John Marshall, and George Stephens took a walk around the White Hall Rd. loop from the Museum, through Activity and Mill Fields and Pine Grove 2, and up to the front of the Museum. We did this to try to find a few things for our Notable Sightings list and to try to get a few birds or mammals for our 2011 year-lists. We found White-footed Mouse tracks between the fields and Red Fox tracks (photo above) all around Pine Grove 2. The mouse was lucky that they didn't cross paths. Also in Pine Grove 2 we came across a nice feeding band of birds that consisted of several Black-capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmice, 5 Golden-crowned Kinglets (photo below), and a Brown Creeper. The Kinglets were a "life" bird for Sam, who was the first in our group to spot them; and were a year-bird for John and George. On the way up to the Museum we found multiple Blue Jay feathers scattered about the road and adjacent snow banks. In all likelihood, the Cooper's Hawk that Lois Melaragno saw here yesterday had this Blue Jay for a meal.