Paradise Park in Windsor is a very nice spot. The park includes Lake Runnemede, a number of trails along the lake and through fields, and it connects nicely with the trails in the Windsor Town Forest. Find it off Route 5 just north of the village of Windsor, VT. It has a great view of Mount Ascutney across the pond.
I’ve been to Paradise Park a number of times. Sometimes the birds have been great. Other times it has had fewer birds than I hoped.
In April 2018 there was a massive fallout of Phoebes. I went to try to get photos of them in flight. I had a great time doing so. I also got some nice photos of Palm Warblers, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and Blue-winged Teal.
Then in April 2019, these was an unusual Long-tailed Duck in strange plumage.
For those of you who like obscure facts, Odgen’s Pondweed apparently exists in only 10 locations around the world. One of them is Lake Runnemede, where the plant lives below the surface. This aquatic plant is listed as being critically imperiled on both state and global lists of endangered species.
I visited Paradise Park recently for a few hours and found some very interesting birds, including the pair of Rusty Blackbirds on the right, as well as nice foliage. I believe all the other times I’ve been there have been in the spring. The fields have a very different look in fall. They were full of tall vegetation and partly filled with pumpkins.
Down by the far end of Lake Runnemede, where you can walk to get to the town forest trail, the foliage was still colorful.
Sparrows were everywhere, but I also photographed a few warblers. Here is a some-what rare Cape May Warbler, yellow surrounded by yellow foliage in the early light.
And a pair of more common, in fall at least, Yellow-rumped Warblers.
Here is another Rusty Blackbird, a beautiful bird even with the strange lighting on this one.
Many sparrow species look similar to me. There are the ones with the striped breasts like Song, Savannah, and Lincoln’s, and ones with plainer breasts like Swamp, White-throated, and White-crowned.
I was able to capture one Savannah Sparrow.
And I photographed many similar-looking Song Sparrows.
Here is a Swamp Sparrow…
… and a similar-appearing White-throated Sparrow.
I found some White-crowned Sparrows. But only the first one in this set looked like the ones I can easily identify.
As I was departing a Great Blue Heron cruised across the pond only to land in a group of Canada Geese on the dam. What was it thinking?
If you get to Windsor, be sure to head uphill to Marton Road, now known as the Windsor Grasslands Wildlife Management Area. It is a great spot. HERE are some spring photos from there including Blue-winged Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, White-throated Sparrow, Veery, Indigo Bunting, and Chestnut-sided Warbler.
If you missed my recent Red Fox blog, you can see it if you CLICK HERE.