Photo: Common grackle by Heather Orkis

Hello everyone,

Winter returned on Saturday with below freezing temperatures, but the sun was out and the skies were blue so it was nice to be outside. And, we had more species than birders so we made our winter goal.

Tree Sparrows and Juncos were present again and we welcomed them back. The Common and Hooded Mergansers looked very pretty in the sunlight, especially the Common’s iridescent green head. Even the Red-breasted Mergansers have a bit of iridescent green on their heads too, something I didn’t realize until this walk. We saw a Common Merganser dive and come up with a pretty good sized fish which he spun around the swallowed head first. He had a satisfying breakfast!

BIRDERS: Paul, Lucy, Mark C., Marian, Mike, Jennie, Leslie, Renate, Cheryl, Pam and welcome to Sean.

TIME: 8:00am to 10:00am     

WEATHER: 13 degrees, sunny

Compiler: Cheryl

Photographer: Mike

1. Canada Goose   Number observed: 160

2. Mallard   Number observed: 4

3. Common Merganser   Number observed: 4

4. Red-breasted Merganser   Number observed: 23

5. Ring-billed Gull   Number observed: 2

6. Herring Gull   Number observed: 1

7. Downy Woodpecker   Number observed: 3

8. Northern Flicker   Number observed: 1

9. American Crow   Number observed: 5

10. Black-capped Chickadee   Number observed: 7

11. European Starling   Number observed: 1

12. American Robin   Number observed: 3

13. House Sparrow   Number observed: 2

14. American Goldfinch   Number observed: 1

15. American Tree Sparrow   Number observed: 5

16. Dark-eyed Junco   Number observed: 2

17. Northern Cardinal   Number observed: 2

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