Saturday’s walk was great, with Jessica and Randy along to help lead the group.  We had about 12 people show up and started out with many Song Sparrows. We  took some time to watch a particularly crisp looking male singing his heart out, with head and beak upraised and beak wide open. I keep on emphasizing to people to watch and let the sound roll into them as they observe the bird singing. There is no better way to learn song and to learn to love song.  Male red-wings are very  actively displaying, splaying their tails and expanding their cherry red epaulets as they declare their territory.  The Common Grackles, also, inflate their bodies and fan their tails as they set up territories. People never fail to be impressed by the beauty of both of these blackbirds and are fascinated by their very overt behaviors.   I am getting better at asking questions of people, I am finding it comes a bit more naturally to me, and is carried along by my excitement and enthusiasm.  So I am asking people more about what they notice when we are looking at  a bird: yellow eyes, large beak on grackle… of course, red breast on robin, but what else?.... what do you  notice on the Song Sparrow,  not just that it is  a brown bird.

 We heard a Killdeer fly over the wetlands but could not locate it. We had our first Painted Turtles, all sprawled out on some dried grass hassocks in the water, their favorite log still being submerged

  The American Kestrels were at it again, by Kip’s barn, their pair bonding copulations have become a regular feature. One of the Kestrels went and perched under the eave of the barn where there is some kind of bar.   In the sky overhead, Larry spotted the R-T Hawk soaring (we had seen him perched in the snag on the other side of the island in the pond, we got to look at the white scapulars there,) overhead I pointed out his somewhat faint belly band, the black outline around his wings, and his black patagial mark on both wings.  While we were watching this bird, Jess found  a female Northern Harrier  who flew through and out of the scrub on the far side of the wetlands, heading toward the airport, I barely had time to see her very prominent white rump and long tail  And then a Turkey Vulture  soared over, on tipping dihedral wings.  Nice turnout of raptors and vulture.

The siskins are still very active in the north woods and still very visible at the feeder. On my run earlier that morning we had seen Pine Siskins carrying nesting material.

  At the Sherwood platform Randy got the scope on the Hooded Mergansers and people appreciated this close view.  There were many turtles in view here. Spring Peepers were peeping, the first of the year for us. Jessica spotted a female redwing in the scrub along the edge of the pond.  And then we saw another frog off  to the right of the trail in a little vernal puddle, just big black eyes goggling out of the water.

 A woman who was there with a very old field guide asked me at the end, if a Common Grackle is the same as a Purple Grackle. She had a 1969 Peterson’s and we compared the Latin name in hers with the Common Grackle Latin name and found that they were

identical.  Purple Grackle still seems like a pretty good name, I wondered why they changed it.

 We finished up the walk with the pair of juncos in the small little oak by the Visitors’ Center.  They seem to be there quite reliably, I wonder if we might see a nest there at some point.  It was a warm, balmy day and the woods were quietly reflective of this early spring in Ithaca. 

Sunday Julie and I led about 6  people on a gray, damp morning.  Again, we spent much time looking at Red-wings, Grackles, there were some Starlings around, surprisingly to me, still in winter plumage, which is the black speckled over with white.

 We saw the Kestrel’s again, busy with their love life and spent  some time talking about the sexual dichromatism, with the male having slate blue gray wings and reddish tail with broad  black terminal band, and the female being all over brown, with a barred tail.  For some reason, I find the difference in tail to be the most interesting, as I wonder how that would  have evolved.

Further on, Julie spotted a Brown Creeper and I just saw it briefly but excitedly, as it moved around behind the trunk out of sight.  Julie showed the group this bird in the field guide and we kept hoping for a reappearance but were not lucky with that.  At the Sherwood platform we watched a muskrat swimming around, were able to see the back and forth beat of his tail as he moved.  No turtles today, it was too cold, but not too cold for Peepers, who were extremely loud. The Common Mergansers were displayed to us perfectly. On a little tiny mound that made a small island, they were standing flank to flank, with the male facing one way and the female facing the other way.

   We saw Black Capped Chickadees; heard them singing their Sweetie song, we saw a Downy Woodpecker or two.  On the way back, Julie pointed out a tree dripping  sap and told us she had seen Chickadees at this sweet stream, drinking.  There was not much else unusual, American Robins, American Goldfinches, White Breasted Nuthatches, Northern Cardinals. Everyone is singing, which is great. I love to hear the Pine Siskins singing, it is so reminiscent of Goldfinches but lacks the goldfinches squeaky notes and is good training for my ear.   Canada Geese are still interacting very vigorously, and there seems to be one lone goose, who is making trouble for some of the pairs.

I had an interesting visual moment with a male Red-wing. He was low enough on a scrubby tree so that I could have a very clear view of his whole soft black back.  I noticed some tiny little vestiges of his juvenile plumage (the brownish streakiness like the female) right between his wings, it made him look pixelated, as though he was  a “virtual” bird that might disappear at any moment.  He must have just gotten into his adult plumage this year. It is always so much fun to see something unusual like this..

Julie has been spending much time in Sapsucker Woods, both walking and running.  She has become very in tune with what is there, what is to be seen, what is to be quietly observed and pondered.  She told me she has developed a strong attachment to the other side of the woods, with its two ponds and its deep air of peace and quiet.  She has seen the Pileated Woodpeckers over there.  Her connections to this place make her a wonderful leader, with a quiet and intense enthusiasm.

The air was becoming more chilled and the sky was gray, but no one’s spirits were dampened as we completed another special walk in the woods.