Hello everyone,
Our spring birds are returning and so are our spring birders. The spring flowers are beautiful with carpets of snow drops and the first scilla peeking up. And our first chipmunk of the season was spotted in the Japanese Garden.
We still have some ducks in residence with a flotilla of Red-breasted Mergansers accompanied by a female Hooded Merganser and two female Common Mergansers. We had great looks at two Cooper’s Hawks and we’re pretty sure that it was a male and female as one was much bigger than the other. Hopefully they were courting and will start a family.
Cowbirds made their first of the season appearance on our walk. Mark W. pointed out two Fox Sparrows and an Eastern Towhee and several of us got some good looks. Pied-billed Grebes have also returned, we had a Great Blue Heron flyover as well as sightings of a Northern Harrier and two Merlins.
BIRDERS: Bob, Kristin, Luther, Marian, Mike, Val, Lucy, Paul, Roger, Cheryl, Parag, Jennie, Robert, Simone, Mark W., Tracy, Daniela, Pam and welcome to Rebecca, Josh, Misty, Howard, Lindsay, Janie, Ashvini, Lexi and Renee.
TIME: 8:00am to 10:30am
WEATHER: High 50s, cloudy, windy
Compiler: Cheryl
Photographer: Paul
Canada Goose Number observed: 27
Wood Duck Number observed: 1
Mallard Number observed: 6
Hooded Merganser Number observed: 1
Common Merganser Number observed: 3
Red-breasted Merganser Number observed: 21
Killdeer Number observed: 3
Ring-billed Gull Number observed: 81
American Herring Gull Number observed: 3
Pied-billed Grebe Number observed: 2
Great Blue Heron Number observed: 1
Cooper's Hawk Number observed: 2
Northern Harrier Number observed: 1
Red-tailed Hawk Number observed: 1
Downy Woodpecker Number observed: 2
Merlin Number observed: 2
American Crow Number observed: 1
Black-capped Chickadee Number observed: 6
White-breasted Nuthatch Number observed: 1
European Starling Number observed: 27
American Robin Number observed: 32
House Sparrow Number observed: 3
House Finch Number observed: 2
American Goldfinch Number observed: 2
Fox Sparrow Number observed: 2
Dark-eyed Junco Number observed: 2
Song Sparrow Number observed: 7
Eastern Towhee Number observed: 1
Red-winged Blackbird Number observed: 19
Brown-headed Cowbird Number observed: 19
Common Grackle Number observed: 20
Northern Cardinal Number observed: 4
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
Photo: White-crowned-Sparrow by Geri Kodey