Photo by Sarah Kabealo
The Fearsome Fledglings had a great second Birdathon, with some new team members and new locations to explore. The team is a group of friends and brothers ages six to 10 (Charlie and Henry Kabealo, Elle Koh, Aiden Fletcher and Griffin Yealdhall), and Sarah Kabealo, who provides advice, binoculars, bird guides and, occasionally, snacks.
We started on Saturday morning at the Kabealos’ house, where we had breakfast, talked about birds, and watched the bird feeders through the window. We had a good variety of birds show up, including a beautiful Rose Breasted Grosbeak. We then put on our boots and hiked around the yard and woods a bit, where we found lots of Red-Winged Blackbirds, Red- shouldered and Red-tailed Hawks, Eastern Bluebirds, and more. At this point, some of our group were ready to stay inside and draw birds for a while, and the rest of the team hiked over to Morven Park, where we identified several more species including a gorgeous Black and White Warbler (and played in the creek for an hour or so). Then we took a quick walk around Meadowbrook Farm Pond and picked up some sandpipers and Savannah Sparrows to add to our list.
On Sunday we met at Claude Moore Park in Sterling, where we found a Great Blue Heron and lots of geese with goslings. The kids also found plenty of tadpoles, snails, turtles and a garter snake to keep everyone entertained. We had some great conversations about how to ID birds by sight and by sound, and over the course of the weekend the team identified an impressive 46 species. Go Fledglings!
Read about the adventures of the other teams on the 2023 Birdathon Team Summaries page.
Photo by Sarah Kabealo
Species List
American Crow
American Goldfinch
American Robin
Black and White Warbler
Black Vulture
Blue Gray Gnatcatcher
Blue Jay
Brown-headed Cowbird
Canada Goose
Carolina Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Chipping Sparrow
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Kingbird
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Towhee
European Starling
Fish Crow
Gray Catbird
Great Blue Heron
Hairy Woodpecker
House Finch
House Sparrow
House Wren
Least Sandpiper
Mallard
Mourning Dove
Northern Cardinal
Northern Mockingbird
Orchard Oriole
Pileated Woodpecker
Red Bellied Woodpecker
Red Shouldered Hawk
Red Tailed Hawk
Red Winged Blackbird
Red Eyed Vireo
Rose Breasted Grosbeak
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Spotted Sandpiper
Tree Swallow
Tufted Titmouse
Turkey Vulture
White Breasted Nuthatch
White Throated Sparrow