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Nancy Barret lead a near record breaking 52 people on our June 15th walk at Colonel Samuel Smith Park. The walk focused on breeding birds. We travelled first to the Swallow Field to see the nesting Tree Swallows. We passed the Barn Swallows nesting under the footbridge on our way to the filtration plant where we saw a few Cliff Swallows nesting as well as many Common Terns flying to and from their nesting colony on the roof of the filtration plant.
The star attraction of the park at this time of year are the Red-necked Grebes. All five nest rafts were in use, with chicks at two of them. The easiest to see and the one with the most chicks was the nest furthest out to West Point. It was worth the walk as we got great views of all four chicks and their parents.
Sunny days aren’t the best for seeing birds, and all the leaves makes it extra challenging, but we heard lots of Yellow warblers, Song Sparrows, a Willow Flycatcher and a Common Yellowthroat.
Despite some surprising misses, we ended the walk with 31 species. Here’ the full list, including a few seen in “overtime”.
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