Prospect Park

Between riding laps around the park's outer roadway and the rain drops, I managed to do a little birding in Prospect Park last weekend.

Most of the expected winter visitors have fallen into their daily routines; Northern Shovelers are swirling, face down in discrete circles on Prospect Lake; reclaiming a prime location, a pair of Bufflehead have returned and are diving at the Upper Pool, large flocks of twittering Dark-eyed Juncos are nervously feeding along the edges of the park's grass meadows and White-throated Sparrows are once again dominating the leaf litter of the woodlands.

There were a few, fleeting moments on Saturday when the sun broke through the clouds. I was on the Peninsula at one point and a blanket of golden leaves beneath the Ginkgo trees were blinding bright.

On Sunday, a Red-throated Loon stopped off at Prospect Lake. These loons are fairly common along the coast, but rarely seen on our park's inland waterways. I'm more accustomed to seeing them at a great distance, through a scope. The one in Prospect Park was occasionally seen swimming only a few yards from the shore. When viewed from so close, I wondered out loud how I could have ever confused it with a Common Loon.