I'm enjoying it while it lasts, but we're running out of days like this.    Though, the surge of Yellow-rumped Warbler should be here soon.     I regret not getting to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum any last month, but I finally made it there on Thursday.   There were Tennessee, Nashville, Chestnut-sided, Black and White Warbler, Redstart, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, and Yellowthroat that morning along with a Scarlet Tanager.   Yesterday,  Carver Park was very quiet with very few of 6 species of warbler and very few birds overall.   A Canada Warbler was the highlight of the morning.    I went back to the arboretum again today and it was pretty active.   The select morning count went as follows.

Double-crested Cormorant 3
Green Heron 2
Cooper's Hawk 1
Sora 1 (I believe this is the same individual I saw on Thurs. at Spring Peeper Meadow.)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1 (probably many more than this but I did not go to the garden/flowering areas of the arboretum)
Eastern Wood-Pewee 7
Blue-headed Vireo 2
Warbling Vireo 1
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 6
House Wren 4
Gray Catbird 3
Tennessee Warbler 4
Nashville Warbler 3
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1 (transitioning to normal plumage)
Palm Warbler 1
Blackpoll Warbler 2 (1 that came within 2 feet of me at chest level in a low overhanging branch)
Black and White Warbler 3
American Redstart 1
Common Yellowthroat 5
Wilson's Warbler 1
Canada Warbler 1
Clay-colored Sparrow 1
Lincoln's Sparrow 2

I normally  don't comment much on anything besides reporting what I see,  but Pastor Al's post earlier about the use of a mobbing track this week got me thinking.    Why does anyone have the need to use recordings in the field to attract birds?    I have never used any recordings to see the birds I see.    While I don't go on any of the scheduled trips because I enjoy birding on my own in my area,  I would never want to be a part of a group that uses recordings.   It may be hypocritical of me, but I have no problem with spishing as that is a sound I naturally produce myself.   Plus spishing is often not effective.   I just find the use of recordings to be lazy birding.   If you consider birding a sport, then I consider the use of recordings in the field to be cheating like the use of a performance enhancing drug such as steroids.

 		 	   		  
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