Hello everyone,

We were all pleased that we achieved our winter goal of having more bird species than birders! Twenty-three species in the winter is pretty good so we were proud of ourselves.

We were greeted by a beaver on the ice in the Columbia Basin. It would slip into the water for a bit, then come back up on the ice. We also saw two muskrats; one from the south bridge and one along the wall behind the museum. And, our raccoons were snuggled up in their tree cavities along the center path. It was a great mammal day.

A beautiful Cardinal and a lovely White-throated Sparrow were foraging in the fallen berries (or small crabapples?) in the Japanese Garden. They looked very picturesque among the red berries. An adult Bald Eagle flew over and perched magnificently in a tree, allowing for great looks. A striking male American Kestrel perched at the top of a tree and watched us as we watched him, and a Red-tailed Hawk flew over us, giving us great looks at its “belly band”.

Happy New Year to all!

BIRDERS: Luther, Val, Roger, Mark M., Mark W., Kushala, Cheryl, Marian, Mike, Jennie, Eric, Mark C., Madhu, Daniela, Kristin and welcome to April who was visiting from Virginia, and Vishv and Tarun, visiting from India.

TIME: 8:00am to 10:45am

WEATHER: 39 degrees, cloudy, light winds

Compiler: Cheryl

1. Canada Goose   Number observed: 63

2. Mallard   Number observed: 6

3. Common Goldeneye   Number observed: 1

4. Red-breasted Merganser   Number observed: 16

5. Ring-billed Gull   Number observed: 3

6. American Herring Gull   Number observed: 1

7. Red-tailed Hawk   Number observed: 1

8. Red-bellied Woodpecker   Number observed: 4

9. Downy Woodpecker   Number observed: 5

10. Northern Flicker   Number observed: 1

11. American Kestrel   Number observed: 1

12. American Crow   Number observed: 6

13. Black-capped Chickadee   Number observed: 5

14. Golden-crowned Kinglet   Number observed: 1

15. White-breasted Nuthatch   Number observed: 1

16. Brown Creeper   Number observed: 1

17. wren sp.   Number observed: 1

18. European Starling   Number observed: 31

19. American Robin   Number observed: 14

20. House Sparrow   Number observed: 11

21. American Goldfinch   Number observed: 6

22. White-throated Sparrow   Number observed: 1

23. Northern Cardinal   Number observed: 10

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