May 18th Field trip summary to Green Door Gourmet

Eleven participants took part in last Saturday’s field trip to the Green Door Gourmet.  Although weather forecasts called for the potential of rain throughout the morning, the weather cooperated perfectly and it remained pleasant and dry.  As we started down toward the river, one of the participants spotted a hawk on a distant snag near one of the manmade ponds and as I scanned for the hawk, my scope instead fell on a Black-billed Cuckoo that happened to be perched out in the open in a tree at the edge of the pond.  Unfortunately it didn’t oblige us for very long and dropped into dense cover soon after being spotted, robbing a few folks of the opportunity for views.  Soon after, we were in the midst of the overgrown fields and ran into our first Dickcissel, amongst the more numerous Orchard Orioles, Blue Grosbeaks, yellowthroats, and meadowlarks.  As we worked our way along the Cumberland River which the farm borders, we spotted the Bald Eagle nest located across the river in Bells Bend Park complete with a recently fledged youngster on a nearby branch.  Mom and Dad were flying around nearby calling back and forth.  Gazing at the extensive fields overgrown with vetch, we finally willed some silent bobolinks into existence.  By this time, we had all made generous blood donations to the local mosquito population, and headed back to the farm shop, where the organic strawberries were a sweet finale to an enjoyable morning.  We ended up with 61 species, a full list of which is below.

Many thanks to all who participated…to Mike Smith for leading and to the Ganiers for hosting at their farm.

Mike Smith

Hendersonville, TN