Photo: Black-crowned night heron by Derrick Johnson

Hello everyone,

We have fledglings! A cute little Starling was outside the Japanese Garden, walking right up to people to say hello. We saw a male Baltimore Oriole feeding a little one and a young, scruffy Yellow Warbler was spotted near the soccer field. It was so cute! A mama Wood Duck was leading her six ducklings around the lagoons.

Our House Wrens who have taken up residence in light fixture number 40 are still building a nest. We saw one bird carry a long piece of grass into the base of the bulb, and then we watched as the grass was slowly pulled into the light fixture.

It was quite a day for Great Blue Herons. We had six fly over and then we found 10 more perched in various spots around the park. Our Black-crowned Night Heron was at its usual spot in the Japanese Garden and we had a nice number of Green Herons too. We had two Great Egrets too, one of whom perched at the top of a dead tree and we got a view of it with the construction cranes behind it – an interesting view. See Gary’s great photo.

The surprise bird of the day was, of course, found by Tracy. She is our rare bird finder extraordinaire. She spotted a Snowy Egret on the shore of the east lagoon and has a picture to prove it. What a great find!

BIRDERS: Kristin, Lucy, Marian, Cheryl, Mike M., Jennie, Leslie, Eric, Gary, Kevin, Mike, Peter, Tracy, Marisa and welcome to Rebecca, Steve, Gavin, Vince, Fiona and Dave who was visiting from Nebraska

TIME:   8:00am to 12:00pm   

WEATHER: cloudy, becoming sunny, low 70s

Compiler: Cheryl

Photographers: Marisa, Eric, Gary and Tracy, but the photo of the Snowy Egret is a picture of Tracy’s camera, just to prove that we really saw a Snowy Egret!

1. Canada Goose   Number observed: 83

2. Wood Duck   Number observed: 10

3. Mallard   Number observed: 7

4. Chimney Swift   Number observed: 4

5. Ruby-throated Hummingbird   Number observed: 1

6. Killdeer   Number observed: 1

7. Ring-billed Gull   Number observed: 5

8. Caspian Tern   Number observed: 1

9. Great Blue Heron   Number observed: 16

10. Great Egret   Number observed: 2

11. Snowy Egret   Number observed: 1

12. Green Heron   Number observed: 4

13. Black-crowned Night-Heron   Number observed: 2

14. Turkey Vulture   Number observed: 3

15. Cooper's Hawk   Number observed: 1

16. Downy Woodpecker   Number observed: 1

17. Northern Flicker   Number observed: 3

18. Eastern Kingbird   Number observed: 5

19. Warbling Vireo   Number observed: 1

20. American Crow   Number observed: 7

21. Black-capped Chickadee   Number observed: 2

22. Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Number observed: 6

23. Purple Martin   Number observed: 2

24. Tree Swallow   Number observed: 2

25. Barn Swallow   Number observed: 20

26. Cliff Swallow   Number observed: 140

27. White-breasted Nuthatch   Number observed: 1

28. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   Number observed: 3

29. House Wren   Number observed: 3

30. European Starling   Number observed: 26

31. Gray Catbird   Number observed: 2

32. American Robin   Number observed: 6

33. Cedar Waxwing   Number observed: 3

34. House Sparrow   Number observed: 7

35. House Finch   Number observed: 2

36. American Goldfinch   Number observed: 4

37. Song Sparrow   Number observed: 3

38. Orchard Oriole   Number observed: 3

39. Baltimore Oriole   Number observed: 5

40. Red-winged Blackbird   Number observed: 12

41. Brown-headed Cowbird   Number observed: 1

42. Yellow Warbler   Number observed: 5

43. Northern Cardinal   Number observed: 3

44. Indigo Bunting   Number observed: 1

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