An early morning start at Roberts Field in Bristol brought out 8 bird watchers to see if we could find the elusive Grasshopper Sparrow as one had been reported there recently, however the target bird was not encountered that morning. Although habitat management has been done on a small scale here, there has not been any evidence of breeding in quite a few years. A brown thrasher that breeds here was heard only briefly. The birds of the day were a surprising Alder Flycatcher, which must have been migrating through, and short looks at a cuckoo flying through, but without any vocalizations or good looks at the bill, it entered our checklist as Yellow-billed/Black-billed cuckoo. Colorful Blue-winged Warblers, Prairie Warblers and Indigo Buntings were plentiful and are the staples for this habitat. From Roberts Field, we traveled over to the hay fields opposite the Chippanee Golf Club where Bobolinks flew across the fields and even perched close to the gate that served as our observation point. The western half of these fields are being managed for Bobolinks with delayed mowing allowing the grassland birds nesting there a chance to successfully breed.
Jack Swatt