Only 4 birders joined me for the walk this morning, which is sponsored by the
Friends of Dyke Marsh and free to all. Although a little slow at points, the
morning was beautiful and the walk yielded some interesting observations.
Waterfowl numbers and diversity were low, so the observation of a Redhead drake
at Hunting Creek was a delightful surprise. A Northern Harrier cruising over
the marsh north of Haul Road gave brief, but decent views to our small group.
The only warblers were Yellow-rumped and Palm, but we got very good looks at
representative of both species. Hard as I tried, I could not come up with a
single kinglet, but "winter" sparrows have arrived, with Swamp and
White-throated present.
Today's list for our records
Canada Goose 98 (yes, I counted every one)
American Black Duck 2
Mallard 31
Redhead 1 (drake)
Lesser Scaup 2 (drake and hen)
Ruddy Duck 5
Pied-billed Grebe 4
Double-crested Cormorant 35
Great Blue Heron 7
Great Egret 2
Osprey 2
Northern Harrier 1
American Coot 20
Laughing Gull 17
Ring-billed Gull 150
Herring Gull 10
Great Black-backed Gull 1 (weird, would expect more than this)
Forster's Tern 6
Mourning Dove 6
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 4
Downy Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 5
Eastern Phoebe 1
Blue Jay 8
American Crow 5
Fish Crow 6
crow sp 2
Carolina Chickadee 7
Tufted Titmouse 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Carolina Wren 12
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
American Robin 11
Northern Mockingbird 10
European Starling 24
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
Palm Warbler 2
Song Sparrow 6
Swamp Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 7
Northern Cardinal 6
Red-winged Blackbird 9
Common Grackle 7
House Finch 3
American Goldfinch 3
House Sparrow 3
Larry Cartwright
prowarbler@xxxxxxxxxxx
