Gerry Hawkins and I led one of the 10 bird walks we had going on last Saturday in celebration of International Migratory Bird Day.
For our walk, we went all around Bles Park – from the fields to the wetlands to the river, and we had some wonderful views of different birds.
We then went over to the Great Blue Heron rookery and observed them for awhile as they tended their nests.
We finished our morning with a great walk through the nature trails around Loudoun Water where we had amazing views of Eastern Kingbirds among others.
We had an excellent day birding these areas, although some common species (year round-ers like woodpeckers as well as summer residents like the chats) were missing. Warblers were down too but we did get a great view of a Northern Parula (shown here).
In all we had 54 species:
Canada Goose, Mallard, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great egret, Snowy egret, Green heron, Black vulture (poss. Nesting at Loudoun water), Turkey vulture, sharp-shinned hawk, Red-tailed hawk, Amer. Kestrel, Solitary sandpiper, Rock pigeon, Mourning dove, Chimney Swift, Belted kingfisher, Red-bellied woodpecker, Northern flicker, Peewee, Phoebe, Great Crested Flycatcher, Eastern kingbird, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, Amer. Crow, Fish Crow, Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Blue0gray gnat-catcher, Eastern bluebird, American Robin, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, European starling, Cedar waxwing, Northern Parula, Prairie warbler, Blackpoll warbler, Nothern Waterthrush, Common yellowthroat, Chipping sparrow, Song sparrow, Northern cardinal, Indigo bunting, Red-winged blackbird, Common grackle, Orchard Oriole, Baltimore Oriole, Amer. Goldfinch, House Sparrow
Many thanks to Gerry for such a great walk! We had fun exploring the trail through Loudoun Water too!