Marc Lichtenberg led our March 23rd walk at Colonel Samuel Smith Park. A late taste of winter on Friday gave us a fresh layer of snow on the ground on Saturday morning. That left flocks of early migrants: Red-winged Blackbirds, Grackles, and Robins searching for food. A few Killdeer, which had been feeding on lawns a few days earlier, were forced to forage along the shoreline. Recent warm weather has opened lakes and rivers further north, so the large flocks of waterfowl typically present at this time of year, had already moved on.
While we didn’t see anything rare, we found a nice variety of early spring migrants on a sunny and surprisingly warm morning. We missed some common birds, but ended with a total of 27 species. Here is the full list:
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