Hello everyone,

Wow, what a crazy morning. Our walk was one of the events for the second annual Urban Birding Festival and we had fifteen participants registered. However, Mother Nature was angry on Saturday morning and sent a whopper of a thunderstorm through Hyde Park beginning at about 7:45am. Drenching rain, very high winds and a lot of thunder and lightning. Obviously, these were not safe conditions for birders to be out in the park so we delayed the start time of the walk to 9:00am and I sent urgent emails to all the festival participants and our regular group. Many of the regular birders came to my place and we hung out until it was safe to go outside just after 9:00am. We were very pleased to find that three of the fifteen registered participants had sought shelter from the storm and stayed around to join us. They were glad that they did as we ended up having a fabulous walk with 50 species. See the attached selfie of our smaller than usual group. We had Nick take it because he had the longest arms.

When the rain stopped, the birds came out. It was a very raptor-y day again. Two crows were harassing a Red-shouldered Hawk, although the hawk fought back valiantly. We watched four raptors flying around, sometimes fighting – they put on quite a show. Two Cooper’s Hawks were on the center path and we got great looks at them. A gorgeous adult Bald Eagle flew right over us.

We had a Vireo trifecta with Warbling, Red-eyed and Philadelphia all in one tree. There was a fabulous flock of Flickers cavorting in a tall tree, and we had many American Goldfinches, including one who was feeding a juvenile. A Solitary Sandpiper was present too.

It appears that a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron has usurped Osaka’s favorite fishing spot in the Japanese Garden. The juvenile bird is as fearless as Osaka and stood right by the path as we all gawked at him/her.

BIRDERS: (13) Luther, Leslie, Mark C., Marian, Cheryl, Mike, Jennie, Darby, Jan, and welcome to Urban Birding Festival participants Nick, Sean (from Denver), Chuck (from Florida) and Sara.

TIME: Delayed start time: 9:15am to 2:10pm

WEATHER: Mid 60s to mid 70s. Light rain at beginning of walk, gradually cleared up and became sunny and beautiful.

Compiler: Cheryl

1. Canada Goose   Number observed: 20

2. Wood Duck   Number observed: 10

3. Mallard   Number observed: 8

4. Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)   Number observed: 2

5. Mourning Dove   Number observed: 1

6. Chimney Swift   Number observed: 19

7. Ruby-throated Hummingbird   Number observed: 5

8. Solitary Sandpiper   Number observed: 1

9. Ring-billed Gull   Number observed: 10

10. American Herring Gull   Number observed: 1

11. Double-crested Cormorant   Number observed: 5

12. Black-crowned Night Heron   Number observed: 1

13. Green Heron   Number observed: 4

14. Great Egret   Number observed: 3

15. Great Blue Heron   Number observed: 5

16. Cooper's Hawk   Number observed: 2

17. Bald Eagle   Number observed: 1

18. Broad-winged Hawk   Number observed: 1

19. Red-shouldered Hawk   Number observed: 1

20. Red-tailed Hawk   Number observed: 1

21. Belted Kingfisher   Number observed: 2

22. Downy Woodpecker   Number observed: 3

23. Northern Flicker   Number observed: 9

24. Eastern Phoebe   Number observed: 1

25. Philadelphia Vireo   Number observed: 1

26. Warbling Vireo   Number observed: 8

27. Red-eyed Vireo   Number observed: 2

28. American Crow   Number observed: 8

29. Black-capped Chickadee   Number observed: 6

30. European Starling   Number observed: 6

31. Gray Catbird   Number observed: 2

32. Swainson's Thrush   Number observed: 3

33. American Robin   Number observed: 15

34. House Sparrow   Number observed: 1

35. House Finch   Number observed: 3

36. American Goldfinch   Number observed: 21

37. Black-and-white Warbler   Number observed: 2

38. Tennessee Warbler   Number observed: 1

39. Nashville Warbler   Number observed: 2

40. American Redstart   Number observed: 6

41. Cape May Warbler   Number observed: 2

42. Magnolia Warbler   Number observed: 2

43. Bay-breasted Warbler   Number observed: 5

44. Chestnut-sided Warbler   Number observed: 1

45. Blackpoll Warbler   Number observed: 1

46. Black-throated Blue Warbler   Number observed: 1

47. Palm Warbler   Number observed: 1

48. Black-throated Green Warbler   Number observed: 2

49. Wilson's Warbler   Number observed: 1

50. 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: Eastern phoebe by Robert Brian Rivera