Species

Great Blue Heron, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture. Canada Goose, Wood Duck, Ring-necked Duck, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Cooper's Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Wilson's Snipe, Ring-billed Gull, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Belted Kingfisher, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Tree Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Brown Creeper, Carolina Wren, Winter Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Eastern Bluebird, Hermit Thrush, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird

Bill Sefton reports:

The March walk was also the Annual Cleanup Day at GBNA, so the 17 birders toted trash bags as well as binoculars for this one. See photo below for just a handful of the people who assisted in gathering up broken glass, discarded beer cans, lost fishing lures, and various bric-a-brac along our usual route. Special shoutout to Scott for heroically braving the brambles to reach the stuff that no one else could manage and also to Liz for taking all the filled bags with her at the end of the walk.

Now, onto the birds! It was chilly and breezy, but the birds made it very clear that spring was arriving. The Red-winged Blackbirds were in full throat and we had first of the year sightings of Osprey, Wood Duck, Ring-necked Duck, Tree Swallow, and Wilson’s Snipe. The Wilson’s Snipe earned the bird of the day honors – not because we got particularly good looks at it - but because we wouldn’t have seen it at all if it hadn’t been Cleanup Day! When Dave M. used a trash picker to reach a multi-hook lure and beer can stuck in the mud of the big pond, the snipe bolted from its hiding place near the beer can. Pretty cool!