Trip Highlights

Six members gathered under mostly cloudy skies to enjoy the annual Mother's Day walk at Robinson State Park.  The temps were in the mid-50s, with a light breeze.  We counted a total of 60 species.  Click below to view complete trip list.

Ten members joined in for a 2-mile walk, identifying a total of 39 species.  Click below to view species list.

Nine members gathered for a two hour walk on the rail trail.  We identified 38 species with some quite special observations, including great looks at a non-bird species—an Eastern Red Bat. The rarest bird species was a Least Bittern, which flew up from reeds on pond across open water and landed in another reed bed.  The last bird of the evening, a Barred Owl, was spotted for the group by one sharp-eyed birder. Click below to view complete trip list.

Five hardy souls showed up at Stebbins this morning.  We gave it the old college try for about 10 minutes and then the rain started in earnest so we all voted to call it.  We did see 1 Great Blue Heron, 1 Swamp Sparrow, 1 Grackle and the usual Red-winged Blackbird suspects (5 or 6).

Weather: Sunny day with low-50's at the beginning of the trip and low-70s at the end.

8 participants  

31 total species

It was a very casual walk on a flat, paved road along a very beautiful body of water.  The weather was very cooperative since it was neither too cold when we started in the morning nor too warm when we finished about 3 hours later.  There were not many birds singing so our species count was a little lower than it could have been if we would have heard more bird song.  This trip is scheduled early in migration so, depending on conditions, we can get many early warbler arrivals or very few.  This year we only had 5 warblers, a low count for the trip. We saw many of the regulars along the path as we walked about 1 1/2 miles.  Everybody seemed to have a good time, which is most important of all.  

Bird Highlights included a Broad-winged Hawk that swooped down over the reservoir and was seen by most of the people on the trip.  There were 2 Common Loons in breeding plumage, a Spotted Sandpiper sitting on a rock, and 5 Double-crested Cormorants on their usual place on some rocks on a small island.  We heard a Pileated Woodpecker banging on a tree and the five warblers were Ovenbird, Pine, Black-throated Blue (heard), Yellow-rumped, and Black-and-white.