Many of my stops at the Regency Boulevard retention ponds are often done late in the day. Sometimes while I'm there at the north pond, I hear or see birds in the edge of the woods that's just across the entrance road, which is actually an extension of Steuben Road. So today, I decided to do a morning stop and made sure to walk over there first thing and bird the edge of the woods to see if there would be any activity. I was not disappointed. In fact, I was surprised when I found 20 species! Right away, I noticed birds flying back and forth between the woods and a soybean patch planted between the woods and the road. The first two birds I saw turned out to be two Orchard Orioles. Others visiting the patch included House Wren, Common Yellowthroat, and Indigo Bunting among several Song Sparrows. I was able to get photos of some of them.
A little farther along, I found American Redstart, Red-eyed Vireo, and an Eastern Wood-Pewee. The vireo took off and dove into another tree before I could get a good photo, but the pewee posed nicely and the redstart stuck around long enough to get some mediocre photos.
By checking the more-distant snags through an opening in the trees, I happily found Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole, and a Northern Flicker.
Other species noted there included Blue Jay, Black-capped/Carolina Chickadee, Carolina Wren, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, and Wood Thrush.
I walked back across the road, got my scope out of the car, and starting scanning the north pond. The Pied-billed Grebe was way back in its usual southeast corner. There were at least three Lesser Yellowlegs and three Least Sandpipers in addition to the expected Killdeer and Spotted Sandpipers.
The Hooded Merganser was present in the south pond as was a Great Blue Heron.
There was no sign of the Semipalmated Plover or the Blue-winged Teal. I ended up with a total of 37 species.
