So my Friday vacation day birding plans were prevented by a Nor’easter.  What can you do?  Daisy and I had planned to drive down to NYC, stopping for a shot at Long-eared Owls along the way.  Instead we dilly-dallied and decided against driving when the storm that dumped a foot-and-a-half of the fluffy stuff started.

So we took the short drive to Five Rivers before hitting the video and grocery stores because we figured a walk in the snow would be nice.  But we quickly discovered that the remnants of the Valentine’s Day storm had been packed down and melted and refrozen.  The new snow falling on the old ice created trail conditions that were a wee bit too slippery for us.  On to the feeders!

Blue Jay

My first Fox Sparrow in New York in 2007

Fox Sparrows were everywhere in the Hudson River corridor with the storm stalling their migration and forcing them to forage for food.  Several posts went up on local listserves about them showing up at feeders.  When I stopped at my parents’ house for a late St. Patrick’s Day dinner tonight they had just had one at the feeder, and my aunt and uncle saw the backwards-kicking snow-scratchers at their house as well.

Sitting on the bench in front of the huge window at Five Rivers watching the free-for-all was wonderful.  Feeding were Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, Mourning Doves, Downy Woodpeckers, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, a House Finch, Northern Cardinals, a female Brown-headed Cowbird, European Starlings, Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Blue Jays, a couple of Gray Squirrels and, well, I won’t give away the sparrows.  American Robins tut-tutted from nearby trees, all puffed up to keep warm in winter’s last gasp (I hope).

So our journey to the Big Apple was delayed a day but that was okay because being snowed in together was pretty fun too.  Check back tomorrow to see where we ended up on Saturday!

Can you name the 6 species of sparrow in this photo?  Put your guess in the comments.