Bill Brown, Joanne Bradbury, and Debbie Harrison enjoyed the mid-week bird walk at Algonkian Park today – and did our bit to improve international relations in the process. Just as we were starting our walk, a group of four visitors from Sweden drove into the parking lot. Seeing that they carried binoculars, we invited them to join us and they eagerly accepted. This gave us the opportunity to impress them with some of our local birds, including the Northern Cardinal and the White-Breasted Nuthatch. Perhaps the highlight of today’s walk was being able to track down an Eastern Phoebe at the request of the matriarch of the group, who beamed and advised us that it was a life-bird for her. They left us after an hour, with smiles and thank-you’s all around, and one member of the group, who actually lives in Sterling, asked for LWC’s web address so that he can participate in future activities.
Other highlights of today’s outing included two Barred Owls enthusiastically vocalizing with each other for several seconds and our first of season Eastern Kingbird. Double-crested Cormorants and Yellow-rumped Warblers were plentiful, a few Palm Warblers showed themselves, and a couple of Osprey flew over. We had great views of several Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and a lone Brown Thrasher. We found about eight Blue-winged Teals remaining in an ephemeral pool between the river and the soccer field. Bill saw his first of season Orchard Oriole before the rest of the group arrived and a Spotted Sandpiper after they had left.
Altogether we saw 45 species, including: Canada Goose, Wood Duck, Mallard, Blue-winged Teal, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Red-shouldered Hawk, Spotted Sandpiper, Mourning Dove, Barred Owl, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Kingbird, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Tree Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Carolina Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Eastern Bluebird¸ American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, European Starling, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Palm Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Orchard Oriole, House Finch, American Goldfinch.