Don Burton lead a group of 26 hardy (foolish?) participants on our June 23rd walk at Colonel Samuel Smith Park. It rained to varying degrees for the whole time leaving both the birds and the birders wet and bedraggled. Many of the resident species we would typically expect to see were laying low, nowhere to be found. We made up for that with a few unexpected species. Our walks usually run overtime, but this one ended a bit early. We ended with 28 species. Here’s the list:
Canada Goose Mute Swan Mallard Redhead Lesser Scaup Red-necked Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Black-crowned Night-Heron Ring-billed Gull Common Tern Mourning Dove Chimney Swift Warbling Vireo Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow Barn Swallow Cliff Swallow American Robin European Starling Cedar Waxwing Yellow Warbler Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal Baltimore Oriole Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle American Goldfinch House Sparrow
After that, some of us who lasted to the end went to dry off with a hot coffee at Birds & Beans Cafe. Many thanks to them for their ongoing sponsorship of these walks!
It wasn’t great weather for photos, but here are a few from the walk:
