Photo: American tree sparrow by Karen Brown

Hello everyone,

Ten temerarious birders ventured outside on this cold winter morning, expecting to freeze while undertaking a valiant attempt to look at birds. However, the winds were not as strong as predicted so the weather wasn’t as difficult to deal with as we thought it might be. The sun appeared about half way through the walk and it ended up being a beautiful day. We were all glad that we made the effort to get out and about.

We started the walk with a surprise sighting of a Fox Sparrow near our meeting spot. Our pair of gorgeous Hooded Mergansers were calmly paddling about. We had quite a few Northern Cardinals and had four males in one spot – a lovely sight. American Tree Sparrows were all over the place. I’m sure there were more than the 28 that we were able to ID and count.

BIRDERS: Cheryl, Lucy, Mike, Jennie, Mark C., Meghan, Eric, Tracy, Marisa and welcome to Ashley, who was very brave to come out for her first bird walk on such a cold day.

TIME: 8:00am to 10:00am                 

WEATHER: 28 degrees, cloudy with light snow at first but later it became clear and sunny. Breezy.

Compiler: Cheryl

Photographers: Eric and Mike           

1. Canada Goose   Number observed: 103

2. Mallard   Number observed: 4

3. Hooded Merganser   Number observed: 2

4. Red-breasted Merganser   Number observed: 8

5. Ring-billed Gull   Number observed: 2

6. Herring Gull   Number observed: 2

7. Northern Harrier   Number observed: 1

8. Cooper's Hawk   Number observed: 1

9. Downy Woodpecker   Number observed: 2

10. Northern Flicker   Number observed: 1

11. American Crow   Number observed: 1

12. Black-capped Chickadee   Number observed: 4

13. White-breasted Nuthatch   Number observed: 1

14. European Starling   Number observed: 2

15. American Robin   Number observed: 2

16. American Pipit   Number observed: 1

17. American Goldfinch   Number observed: 3

18. American Tree Sparrow   Number observed: 28

19. Fox Sparrow   Number observed: 1

20. Dark-eyed Junco   Number observed: 17

21. Northern Cardinal   Number observed: 9

If you’d like more information about a bird, check out the All About Birds ID guide:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/

Corrections, additions and comments are welcome.

Good birding everyone,

Jennie