Heather of the Hills: bird walk

This past Saturday was International Migratory Bird Day, and Dave and I celebrated by participating in a Migratory Bird Walk at Lake Hope State Park. This is the third year we have gone on the walk. It's a usually a small affair, with about 20-30 folks in attendance. We meet at a specific point and spend 3 hours birding at different locations throughout the park.

The fella with the guide book sticking out of his pocket is park naturalist Dave Sapienza, our guide for the bird walk.

The grassy area shown in this photo was basically a big area of murk and mud (we've had a LOT of rain lately), and there was no avoiding getting your shoes soaked and your shoes and pants (at the least) covered in mud. The cool thing about birders: we either come prepared or expecting such things, so no one complained at all about the mess - we all just smiled, laughed and trogged on through.

Before we even got to the meeting point, we drove past a family of Canada Geese. Dave kindly offered to stop the car so I could get out and take pictures.

Mama Goose, Papa Goose, and 6 baby geese

"Okay kids, make sure you look both ways before you cross the lake..."

Once we got to the meeting place, I was surprised to see lots of Red-wing Blackbirds just walking around in the grass, pecking for bugs. Like this guy:

I'm not sure what Dave said to this guy when he got out of the truck, but I don't think it made the bird very happy because he got all tough and showed us his shoulder patches. I was really excited when I saw this photo on my computer screen, because I don't have very many photos of birds displaying like this, or calling like this.

I didn't actually take very many photos of the birds because they were just too far away to make it worthwhile. The only other bird close enough for a good photo op was a pair of nesting Tree Swallows that were working a nest box together.

Here's a list of all the birds seen/heard during our 3-hour walk:

Canada Goose
Red-winged Blackbird
Grey Catbird
Eastern Towhee
Eastern Kingbird (LIFER)
Tree Swallow
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Yellow Warbler
Pileated Woodpecker (heard only)
Northern Cardinal
American Goldfinch
Ovenbird (heard only)
Great Crested Flycatcher
Hooded Warbler (heard only)
Carolina Wren (heard only)
White-eyed Vireo
American Crow
Brown Thrasher
Scarlet Tanager (heard only)
Song Sparrow (heard only)
Common Grackle
Northern Flicker
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Common Yellowthroat
American Robin
Chipping Sparrow
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
Barn Swallow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Red-eyed Vireo (heard only)
American Redstart
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher (heard only)
Yellow-throated Warbler (heard only)
White-breasted Nuthatch
Hairy Woodpecker
Black Vulture
Blue-winged Warbler
Prairie Warbler (heard only)
Yellow-breasted Chat
Wood Duck
Osprey (LIFER)
Prothonotary Warbler (heard only)
Indigo Bunting (heard only)

Please note that many of the "heard only" species were brought to my/our attention by the naturalist. While I knew quite a few of them by ear, several of them (like just about all the warblers) are still not stored in my memory banks.

Items of note:

We got very good looks at the Great Crested Flycatcher, who seemed to follow us everywhere. The Brown Thrasher also presented itself for some good looks. This is unusual compared to the previous 2 years.
Presenting its song over and over and over was the Yellow Warbler ("sweet-sweet-sweeter than sweet"); it did not come out into plain view too much, though.
Last year we got a great look at the Prothonotary Warbler, but we did not get to see it this year (only heard it).
Missing completely from this year's count were the Northern Parula Warbler and the Cerulean Warbler, and any species of hawk (we usually at least see a Red-tailed).
New with this year's list: Wood Duck, Osprey and Eastern Kingbird.

While the birds are the focal point of any bird walk, seeing the birders doing their thing and enjoying themselves is nice, too.