It was a lovely day at Cochran Shoals with a surprising level of bird activity at every turn.  I had probably my highest ever warbler species count for the park today, 05/02/2015.  I started at daylight and walked basically nonstop and at a good pace for 4 1/2 hours.  I covered all the trails and habitats.  After two hours I realized I had a good chance to get a high tally so I made sure I spent time in specific areas like on the hills for some of the harder ones like Nashville, Ovenbird, Worm-eating, Kentucky, and Swainson's.  Then I worked the field a couple times until I was able to get Chat and Prairie.  Having the riparian habitat really helped with ones like Prothonotary, both waterthrushes, and Swainsons.  This time I lucked up with some bonus birds like Golden-winged, Black-throated Blue, Bay-breasted, and Canada.  Misses included Blue-winged, Orange-crowned, Wilson's, and Cerulean.  Birds continued to sing almost the entire time which helped greatly. 

Amusingly, I did not find any of the rare birds that I was actually looking for. And oddly, I did not see any other birders there this time.

Northern Parula (5)

Tennessee (3)

Golden-winged (1)

Nashville (1)

Yellow (6)

Chestnut-sided (6)

Magnolia (2)

Cape May (5)

Black-throated Blue (1)

Blackburnian (5)

Yellow-rumped (many)

Black-throated Green (3)

Prairie (1)

Palm (many)

Pine (many)

Bay-breasted (2)

Blackpoll (many)

Yellow-throated (5)

Worm-eating (4)

Prothonotary (3)

Black-n-white (2)

American Redstart (6)

Swainson's (2)

Ovenbird (1)

Northern Waterthrush (3)

Louisiana Waterthrush (1)

Kentucky (1)

Common Yellowthroat (7)

Canada (2)

Hooded (5)

Yellow-breasted Chat (2)

Good Birding!

Eric Beohm

Atlanta, GA