Last Day in Longpoint

On our last day in Longpoint we returned to the Old Cut Observatory.  It's right next to the Old Cut Lighthouse.  The area around the lighthouse has long since silted in and it's now surrounded by houses. In fact it's now a private home.

The Observatory was celebrating its annual birdathon and the director was leading a bird walk.  He was amazing in his ability to single out individual birdsong from the cacophony and then suss out the bird.  We saw a ton of stuff, including chimney swift (lifer!), Blackburnian and black-and-white warbler.  The highlight was this blue-gray gnatcatcher nest made of lichens, complete with gnatcatcher.

Spot the gnatcatcher nest!

We staked out the parking lot birch tree again, slower today but we spotted a scarlet tanager.

Leo also spotted a Canada warbler, Lifer!

Then it was back to the beautiful Backus Woods.

We went back to the open meadow where we saw the golden-winged warbler.  

Here we had our first glimpse of an indigo bunting. Lifer!

The light wasn't great but it's evidence.

We checked for Louisiana waterthrush in this waterthrush habitat.

No luck with the waterthrush but we did find lots of mosquitos and lots of

Eastern skunk cabbage.  Unfortunately not flowering yet.  Plant of the Day!

And some pretty mushrooms.

On our way back we visited the open meadow again. We played both the golden-winged and blue-winged songs and this time we brought in the blue-winged warbler. 

Lifer!