photo by Pat Bazany
Fourteen of us spent three and a half hours strolling Black Lake Park Saturday morning. It felt like spring, and the birds acted like spring. By the time we left, we'd recorded 52 species!
Of note were three Eastern Towhees (one of the two males scratching the leaf litter for bugs), an American Robin making mud-trips to its nest, Brown Thrasher, two American Wigeon, Bonaparte's Gull, Horned Grebe, Great Blue Heron, Wild Turkey (two males on the ground displaying their tails, a female perched high in a tree over our heads), both kinglets, Brown Creeper, Hermit Thrush, Pine and Yellow-rumped Warblers, and way too many Brown-headed Cowbirds.
Other species included Wood Duck, Gadwall, scaup, Bufflehead, Ruddy Duck, American Coot, Sandhill Crane, Red-shouldered Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, Red-bellied, Downy and Pileated Woodpeckers, Tree Swallow, Chipping, Field, White-throated, Song (and House) Sparrows, plus most of the usual suspects. Notable by its absence was Gray Catbird of which we saw and heard none!
