It would be hard to beat Saturday morning’s bright crisp sunshine. Tom, Randy, Angelika and I were psyched for our birdwalk with such pleasant conditions. We waited in the Visitors’ Center for our group to gather and get binoculars. A birder who I know named Paul Anderson showed up looking for Rusty Blackbirds and our lone Common Redpoll (he is a competitor in our local birding communities friendly list competition called the David Cup) and while there, quickly noticed an American Widgeon on the remnants of the ice, just mingled in among the Mallards. We all enjoyed good views of him, his green head split by a white forehead and most noticeable, dark legs as compared to the bright orange of all the Mallards. Another good birding lesson for me, do not assume that all birds in a flock are the same, it is always worth a scan. The male and female Hooded Mergansers were present also, just the cutest little diving ducks, the male bright in his breeding plumage and the female crazy with her reddish spiky head do. I was talking about the difference between dabbling ducks and diving ducks and the Hoodies obliged by diving out of sight and then coming back up with fish that they had snared. Then we started out on our walk with about 7 participants. As we came across the first boardwalk headed out to the wetlands, Larry noticed a bird perched in the tree by the barn. It was the male kestrel, very exciting for us all. We went out onto the observation platform and watched him fly back and forth and go into both nesting boxes and then under the eaves. We had very clear views of his blue gray wings which clearly identified him as the male and we could even clearly see his mustache stripe typical of many falcons. We saw European Starlings on the wire and there were redwings and grackles everywhere. I pointed out the keel shape of the long grackle tail, a very good field mark especially as a blackbird is flying.
I was hoping to see the Great Blue Heron and he was spotted in a tree, nice to see him there and this brought up discussions by the group about the colonial nesting in trees of these large birds. Someone mentioned a rookery and was commenting how the nests were so visible before the leaves came out, but completely hidden after the trees leafed out. The GBH then gracefully flew down to the ice and was stalking on the surface but looking into the water at the edges. We saw and heard American Robins singing and eating buckthorn berries and saw a female cardinal singing. The siskins are still present in abundance, we watched them for a while at the back of the building and heard them singing in addition to their “zweet calls”.
People were really hoping for Pileated Woodpeckers. We talked about them for a while, and someone wondered what the size of their territory would be. I looked this up on Birds of North America and learned the territory size can be from ~100acres to ~400 acres. It would seem from that that it is likely that Sapsucker Woods would possibly just be large enough for one mated pair. Also, male and female stay paired up throughout the year and jointly defend their territory, although they will admit some others the call "floaters".
As we were talking about them and walking back past the wetlands, the pair of Pileateds suddenly flew over, a little far away, kind of in a line with Kip’s Barn, but close enough to clearly id them and see their lovely white underwing primary color.
All agreed this walk was fun, we kind of ambled for almost two hours and thoroughly enjoyed . I heard a Song Sparrow singing as I left but did not have the opportunity to point it out people.
Saturday March 15
Julie and Randy led a large walk of about 12 people. They both agreed it was a fairly quiet morning also. Julie said that one of her highlights was watching two male Redwings displaying in a tree, one higher than the other, then the higher one flying down and the two birds sparring physically. Randy and another person had again gone out on the observation deck by the wetlands to watch the male Kestrel flying in and out of the boxes and under the eaves. Randy talked about the different classes of falcons and other raptors. They saw the Great Blue Heron when they returned to the Visitors’ Center.
Before they had started out, Paul Anderson showed up again, still looking for that one Common Redpoll and Rusty Blackbirds, but we spotted three male Hooded Mergansers, way in the back, beyond the berm, and at least two females. And a Killdeer flew over calling.
Julie had a person monopolizing her spot at the front and we talked about this after the walk. This is still a problem for all of us to know how to handle. Julie tried gathering the group up with her in the center to try and break up this dynamic, but it didn’t work. I don’t think we are the only ones with this problem, I think even the most experienced leaders may not know how to really deal with this. And as Julie said, some people just settle into the back and some are in front just naturally.
I had gone out by myself while Julie and Randy were leading the walk just to see what was on the other side. I heard a Red-bellied Woodpecker and heard the song of, then saw, a Brown Creeper. When I came back to the other side, I saw two Dark-eyed Juncos singing and then, by the Sherwood Platform, I heard lots of tinkling song, located very low down . I finally located a large flock of tree sparrow flitting in the scrub. I never saw any one specifically singing, but the whole situation was interesting, especially that they seemed to be singing from so low down.
Also, I had a little chipmunk on the South Wilson trail scurry up inside a beech low trunk crack, then scurry back down and peek at me, then scurry back up. It made me wonder about all of the things that might go on inside trees.
It was a good weekend, but the premature ice melt, long daylight days and balmy breezes makes us feel as though there should be much more activity. I have to keep reminding myself how early in the year it actually is.
