Autumn in the Refuge, 2022
This year’s fall migration brought some unusual suspects to the Refuge, including Lincoln’s Sparrow, Philadelphia Vireo, and Cape May Warbler. One morning in September, as many as three chatty Marsh Wrens showed up together; this species, still common in the Abbott Marshlands, nested in the Refuge decades ago but has been seen only sparingly since. Maybe, if we are lucky, these three appreciated our newly restored habitat of native cattails and will make a point of returning next spring.
The most unexpected visitor of all—never before recorded at the Rogers Refuge—was a Clay-colored Sparrow, an elegant pale-buffy Spizella of the mid-continent that occasionally wanders east in the fall.
Throughout the season, sizeable flocks of Cedar Waxwings, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and overwintering Eastern Bluebirds were drawn to successive crops of native and invasive berries, especially the plentiful poison ivy.
As always, the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count, now in its 123rd year, closed the fall season. On Sunday, December 18, in clear conditions, an intrepid band of friends of the Refuge spent five hours counting individual birds, ending with a tally of 48 species, the second highest total number in the last two decades. Highlights included Great Horned Owl, Rusty Blackbird, Fox Sparrow, flocks of up to 250 flyover Snow Geese, and a record high of eight Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. Since then, amid wildly fluctuating temperatures, the Refuge has settled in for the winter.
Text by Winnie Hughes Spar; Photographs by David Padulo.