Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Pleasant morning, sort of lackluster birding

Can you pick out the Lesser Scaup?



I'm not sure if I'm remembering all the birds we saw this morning, but my total is only 30 species. But we had some splendid looks at them--pretty close up views of a small flock of Greater Scaup with one lone Lesser among them, a gorgeous if uncooperative Horned Grebe (they apparently do not approve of paparazzi!), a nice little Brown Creeper, and, perhaps most beautiful of all though it was pretty far away, a huge flock of terns--I'm 90% certain they were Common Terns--banking and wheeling and twinkling in the sun. It was cold and windy--only 36 degrees when I left home, so people were pretty shivery by the end of the morning.

I'm leaving town for a couple of weeks, so Larry and Jan Kraemer, who are excellent birders and have a splendid Swarovski spotting scope, will be leading the Warbler Walks till I get back. This year I didn't get around to sending out any press releases, so attendance hasn't been too big and they've been lots of fun! Come and join us--Tuesdays at 6:30 am at the Western Waterfront Trail parking lot across from the zoo and just west of the TappaKeg Inn and Bar on Grand Avenue, and Thursdays at 6:30 am at Park Point at the big parking lot by the soccer fields and recreation building.



Canada Goose
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Red-breasted Merganser
Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Merlin
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Common Tern
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
American Robin
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird