Photo: Hairy woodpecker by Lia Bocchiaro

Hello everyone,

What a great morning. The weather was nice and the birds were abundant – our favorite type of day!

The Brown Thrashers were singing away and two Caspian Terns patrolled the lagoons. A Northern Flicker perched at the top of a dead tree and was calling and calling at the top of his lungs for our whole walk. See Marisa’s pretty photo. Eastern Towhees are here, looking gorgeous as usual.

We had one lone Sandhill Crane fly over – it’s unusual to see just one. An Eastern Meadowlark in the meadow was a great sighting and Eric got a nice photo. We were surprised to see two Wilson’s Snipe fly in to the island by the driving range. It was Eric’s lucky day as he took some random photos and managed to get one of the snipes whizzing by.

The best find of the day was the return of the Purple Martins. We head their calls as we approached the houses and were very happy to welcome them back to the neighborhood.

BIRDERS: Imad, Mark C., Mark W., Cheryl, Jane, Kristin, Leslie, Jeff, Eric, Pam, Peter, Jose, Brandon, Courtney, Stefan, Ezra, Tiffany, Tracy, Silky, Marisa, Jennie, Mike, Renate and welcome to Phil, Nathan, Ben, Steve, Andres, Maria, and Tyler who brought his adorable little daughter Josephine, who is starting her birding career at a very early age.

TIME:   8:00am to 11:45am   

WEATHER: Cloudy, 63 degrees, light winds

Compiler: Cheryl

Photographers: Marisa and Eric        

Canada Goose   Number observed: 21

Wood Duck   Number observed: 4

Blue-winged Teal   Number observed: 2

Mallard   Number observed: 8

Pied-billed Grebe   Number observed: 1

Mourning Dove   Number observed: 3

Sandhill Crane   Number observed: 1

Killdeer   Number observed: 1

Wilson's Snipe   Number observed: 2

Ring-billed Gull   Number observed: 9

Herring Gull   Number observed: 3

Caspian Tern   Number observed: 2

Double-crested Cormorant   Number observed: 1

Great Blue Heron   Number observed: 2

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   Number observed: 3

Downy Woodpecker   Number observed: 5

Northern Flicker   Number observed: 4

Monk Parakeet   Number observed: 6

Eastern Phoebe   Number observed: 3

American Crow   Number observed: 4

Black-capped Chickadee   Number observed: 2

Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Number observed: 1

Purple Martin   Number observed: 9

Tree Swallow   Number observed: 3

Barn Swallow   Number observed: 1

Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Number observed: 10

Brown Creeper   Number observed: 2

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   Number observed: 1

European Starling   Number observed: 6

Brown Thrasher   Number observed: 4

Hermit Thrush   Number observed: 3

American Robin   Number observed: 31

House Sparrow   Number observed: 2

House Finch   Number observed: 2

American Goldfinch   Number observed: 6

Dark-eyed Junco   Number observed: 1

White-throated Sparrow   Number observed: 9

Song Sparrow   Number observed: 3

Eastern Towhee   Number observed: 2

Eastern Meadowlark   Number observed: 1

Red-winged Blackbird   Number observed: 36

Brown-headed Cowbird   Number observed: 23

Common Grackle   Number observed: 12

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Number observed: 16

Northern Cardinal   Number observed: 5

If you’d like more information about a bird, check out the All About Birds ID guide:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/

Corrections, additions and comments are welcome.

Good birding everyone,

Jennie