Hey all,

Trish led a walk at 9 on Saturday and Bill led a walk at 9 on Monday.  I am posting both of their emails to me so everyone can feel included.

And much thanks to both for good and enthusiastic guiding and for letting us all in on what they saw and heard.

First is Trish's

Thanks for inviting me to lead today's walk.  I had a great time, especially with the 7:30 AM hotshot warm-up!

We saw many of the same birds on the 9:00 AM walk as on the 7:30 AM walk:  Yellow Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, American Redstart, Warbling Vireo, Baltimore Oriole, Gray Catbird, Blue-winged Warbler, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Downy Woodpecker, American Goldfinch, Tree Swallow, Red-wing Blackbird, Common Grackle, Great Blue Heron, and a few others I can't recall.  We also had an excellent view of a Wood Thrush.

The herons were entertaining -- the one on the nest was joined in the tree by a second heron which fed the heron on the nest a frog.

Tracking down the Blue-winged Warbler involved an attempt to lure it out of the shrubbery using the recording on my iBird software.  While several of us waited patiently squinting into the bushes, the bird flew to a tree behind us.  Luckily one of the other participants was looking that way and called us over.  We got a good long glimpse (oxymoron, I know) at the bird.

And now Bill's

Bird Walk Report
Sunday, May 10, 9 a.m.
Weather: Overcast, windy and cool (40s)

It was not a particularly good day for birding. The birds seemed to be lying low and many species were uncharacteristically silent or sang infrequently.

As we walked away from our initial meeting place at the front door to the Lab, a Baltimore oriole made himself known by his liquid two-note call. He was high in a tree near the Podell Boardwalk. We sang a bit and I noted that he had a loud song that carried well for such a small bird (the wind was actually against him). I speculated that this might be related to the Neotropical origin of the family; a loud voice might be necessary to carry through the dense jungle foliage.

The redwings seem relatively unaffected by the cold, remaining vocal and active. The Canada geese were quite active in the area around the Owens Observation Platform. There were tree swallows and grackles in the air over the water her, but little else.

Another Baltimore oriole appeared in the willows south of the embankment for the platform ponds. This was a pale bird, and may even have been a richly colored female. It did not sing the full song of the species.

Once we were in the woods north of the trail the wind was less stiff, but it still made a lot of noise (as did the airport). A least flycatcher called (che-bek) north of the trail, but it was at least 30 yards into the woods and no one spotted it more than fleetingly. A warbling vireo sang bravely above the trail and most got a good look at this nearly fieldmark-less gray-green bird.

A pair of goldfinches had a knock-down drag-out territorial spat right on the trail, giving us a good show of “spring spirit.” The most interesting thing about this display is that these birds do not usually breed until July or August, yet are already apparently defending territory.

Warblers were quite scarce this day. Yellow warblers were singing and occasionally visible. A redstart could be heard, but not seen. A warbler with a buzzy song rising hyperbolically in pitch called a few times, but never showed himself. It sounded like a blue-winged warbler.

A yellowthroat picked its way desultorily through the alders along the Sapsucker Woods Pond, but never uttered so much as a call note. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of them so silent.

I caught sight of catbirds, pine siskins and cedar waxwings here and there, but we had no good looks at them. Some other members of the group spotted a (presumably male) scarlet tanager, but it departed for the south side of the pond very quickly. A kingfisher rattled once, but did not stick around.

The great blue herons are sitting on eggs in the dead tree in the south side of the pond. One bird (the male?) alighted near the nest as the second one sat on it.

On the walk back someone spotted a robin sitting on eggs from the boardwalk in the wetland south of the Owens Observation Platform. The nest is only about 4 feet off the ground and is wedged among the trunks of a dead alder (?) in about the exact center of the wetland.