We had a total of 15 people on this morning's monthly group walk. We spent almost 3 hours finding 39 species of birds on Lake Creek Trail, starting at the Parmer Village pond. Most of the birds we observed were only briefly seen or even heard-only., but an exception was Eastern Phoebe. There were many of these flycatchers up and down the trail, likely because the year-round residents were joined by south-bound migrants. Similarly, many Killdeers were present on the soccer fields.
Some of the briefly seen highlights:
Some of the briefly seen highlights:
- a Yellow-billed Cuckoo flying across the trail near the last dam
- a juvenile Sora briefly emerging from the reeds near the last dam
- a small group of female Blue-winged Teal and a single Snowy Egret foraging in the shallow water of the creek bed
- a distant Pied-billed Grebe diving and surfacing in the creek upstream of the second dam
- several heard-only returning winter resident House Wrens, a few of which briefly flew across the trail in front of us
- a brown female or juvenile male Indigo Bunting
- two Cooper's Hawks in flight, one that dove at a perched White-winged Dove
The first songbird we got a good close look at was this female Downy Woodpecker:
And nearby we found this juvenile Green Heron hunting in the creek bed. Soon this summer-resident species will be gone for the winter.
On our way back I couldn't resist photographing this Monarch Butterfly on a Maximilian Sunflower plant. (The Maximilian Sunflowers were in bloom all over the place and I loved seeing them!)
Here's our complete bird list. What a fun morning!
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