Photo: Red-shouldered hawk by Cynthia Hansen

Hello everyone,

The Wooded Island Bird Walk is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month! Doug Anderson began leading the walks in 1974 and we continue to conduct weekly outings every Saturday morning, year-round. We’ll have commemorative activities at our walk on March 23 so we hope you’ll all be able to join us.

You can tell that it’s a slow birding day when we spend time studying the house sparrows. While a count of 24 species is pretty good for a winter day, they were mostly our usual residents. We love our usual residents, but it’s always nice to have a special visitor.

But, spring was in the air and it was a lovely day to be out in the park. The chipmunks were awake and running around and yes, there were plenty of House Sparrows, Starlings and Robins. It was nice to see three Cooper’s Hawks. We had a high flyover of Sandhill Cranes so they are on their way back north.

BIRDERS: Daniela, Paul, Marian, Mike, Jennie, Lucy, Mark C., Kristin, Cheryl, Roger, Leslie, Larry, Renate, Pam and welcome to Luther, Jerome and Airin.

TIME: 8:00am to 10:35am     

WEATHER: 36 degrees, light winds, sunny

Compiler: Cheryl

Photographer: Leslie 

1.      Canada Goose  Number observed: 19

2.      Mallard  Number observed: 11

3.      Common Merganser  Number observed: 2

4.      Red-breasted Merganser  Number observed: 5

5.      Sandhill Crane  Number observed: 6

6.      Ring-billed Gull  Number observed: 4

7.      Herring Gull  Number observed: 1

8.      Cooper's Hawk  Number observed: 3

9.      Downy Woodpecker Number observed: 3

10.   Northern Flicker  Number observed: 2

11.   American Crow  Number observed: 7

12.   Black-capped Chickadee  Number observed: 2

13.   White-breasted Nuthatch  Number observed: 1

14.   Brown Creeper  Number observed: 1

15.   European Starling  Number observed: 20

16.   American Robin  Number observed: 18

17.   House Sparrow  Number observed: 5

18.   House Finch  Number observed: 1

19.   American Goldfinch  Number observed: 2

20.   Song Sparrow  Number observed: 2

21.   Red-winged Blackbird  Number observed: 7

22.   Brown-headed Cowbird  Number observed: 1

23.   Common Grackle  Number observed: 2

24.   Northern Cardinal  Number observed: 7

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