Photo: White-breasted nuthatch by Joseph Mahoney

Hello everyone,

Please mark your calendars and be sure to join us for our walk this Saturday, March 23 where we will celebrate and commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Wooded Island Bird Walks. I’ll give a brief talk about the history of the walks and Cheryl will lead a memorial flower toss from the north bridge. We hope to see you all there.

Along with Cardinals singing and Red-winged Blackbirds returning, the most certain sign of spring is the return of birders to the bird walk! A warm welcome back to some folks that we haven’t seen for a while and to the many new birders who joined us on this walk.

We still have some winter birds with us but the migrants are arriving too. A Junco and six Red-breasted Mergansers are still in residence. The number of Red-winged Blackbirds is increasing and the Golden-crowned Kinglets have arrived.

The Northern Shovelers are always nice to see and we even had two Redheads, which is a duck that doesn’t visit the lagoons very often.

We found a Cooper’s Hawk nest that appears to be active so we will definitely check that weekly. Let’s hope for our very own Cooper’s Hawk chicks!

BIRDERS: Luther, Mike, Marian, Cheryl, Jennie, Kristin, Paul, Roger, Leslie, Daniela, Becky, Meghan, Rob, Dennis, Eric, Renate, Pam, Marisa and welcome to Rebecca, Willa, Jennifer, Gerald, Caterina, Zaki and Emmy.

TIME:   8:00am to 10:40am   

WEATHER: 40 degrees, sunny, windy

Compiler: Cheryl

Photographers: Marisa, Eric and Leslie

1. Canada Goose   Number observed: 15

2. Wood Duck   Number observed: 4

3. Northern Shoveler   Number observed: 3

4. Mallard   Number observed: 6

5. Redhead   Number observed: 2

6. Red-breasted Merganser   Number observed: 6

7. Killdeer   Number observed: 1

8. Ring-billed Gull   Number observed: 5

9. Cooper's Hawk   Number observed: 2

10. Red-tailed Hawk   Number observed: 1

11. Downy Woodpecker   Number observed: 4

12. Northern Flicker   Number observed: 4

13. Eastern Phoebe   Number observed: 1

14. American Crow   Number observed: 5

15. Black-capped Chickadee   Number observed: 6

16. Golden-crowned Kinglet   Number observed: 3

17. Brown Creeper   Number observed: 2

18. European Starling   Number observed: 17

19. American Robin   Number observed: 25

20. House Sparrow   Number observed: 1

21. House Finch   Number observed: 2

22. Fox Sparrow   Number observed: 8

23. Dark-eyed Junco   Number observed: 1

24. Song Sparrow   Number observed: 6

25. Red-winged Blackbird   Number observed: 17

26. Brown-headed Cowbird   Number observed: 2

27. Common Grackle   Number observed: 10

28. Northern Cardinal   Number observed: 3

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