Normally, the bird walk on the third Sunday of the month is at Bles Park, but the park is currently closed for construction, so we relocated to Algonkian Park. A dozen birders came out for this St. Paddy’s day walk that was quite comfortable with warm weather. The walk started off well with three Blue-winged Teal flying up river. As the group gathered, we spotted many species right at the meeting spot, including a Bald Eagle, Ring-billed Gulls, a Great Blue Heron, White-throated Sparrows, a Yellow-rumped Warbler and more. As we headed down the trail, we saw our first-of-year Tree Swallows and Osprey flying overhead. We spotted several ducks including Common Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser, Hooded Merganser and Mallard.
We received word of a Barred Owl sighting on the other end of the park, so we headed that way looking for the it. Despite not finding the owl, we did find a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in that area, adding to our woodpecker total. Although we didn’t find a Hairy Woodpecker, we found the other six of our local woodpeckers, including a Red-headed Woodpecker. All told, we found 49 species of birds in a delightful few hours together. The full checklist can be viewed on eBird at: https://ebird.org/checklist/S165152656