Bill Sefton reports: This was a nice walk and the list below of the species identified is pretty impressive – but truth be told - the birding wasn’t that great. We struggled getting good looks at many of the species. Maybe the birds were too hopped up on hormones to sit still long enough to give us more than a short glimpse of them? I’ll give bird of the day honors to the Blue Grosbeak since that was one species that everyone got to both see and hear. 2nd place goes to the Black-throated Blue Warbler – the only migrant warbler on the list. None of us managed to see it, but we all heard its buzzy, lazy song as we neared the Patuxent River. You should also note that there were a good number of shore birds on the list. After we completed the FUNA walk, we stopped at the fishing area of the Patuxent Research Refuge Visitors Center. That’s where we picked up Pied-billed Grebe, Killdeer, Lesser Yellowlegs, Solitary Sandpiper, and Spotted Sandpiper.
Green heron
The complete list of 55 species seen is shown below. The list is color coded with species highlighted in green seen on both the April and May walks, and species highlighted in blue seen on the May walk but not the April walk. At the end of the report – color coded in orange – are the 2 species seen on the April walk but not seen on the May walk. Note that the April walk was rained out after only 30 minutes so that really tilted the scale in favor of May. Hope to see you at GBNA in 2 weeks!
The colors do not show on this report and the orange table has been omitted!
Species: Common Loon, Pied-billed Grebe, Green Heron, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Canada Goose, Mallard, Osprey, Cooper's Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Broadwinged Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Killdeer, Lesser Yellowlegs, Solitary Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Mourning Dove, Chimney Swift, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, White-eyed Vireo, Yellow-throated Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Purple Martin, Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Eastern Bluebird, American Robin, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Northern Parula, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Pine Warbler, American Redstart, Worm-eating Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Summer Tanager, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Blue Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, Orchard Oriole, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow