You don’t usually think about there being a lot of species of birds in the city. Or at least I don’t. I’ve recently started to get into birding after receiving binoculars for my birthday. I’ve been interested in birds for years, watching many of the birds coming to the feeders at my parents’ house. But, that is only a small amount of birds and only a select few even go to home feeders. So, in May when I went on a North Park Nature Center migratory birding walk, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.
They gather early - the bird watchers. At eight o’clock in the morning on Saturdays they gather for two to three hours to see (and hear) all the birds they can. I wasn’t sure how many people would show up. I mean, it is eight o’clock on a Saturday morning and it is birding. I was surprised by the amount of people each week (probably around thirty). We had to split into two groups each week. From there we would walk around the grounds with our binoculars and search out what we could find.
I saw about forty-eight different species of birds. Many of them common to the area, but many more I’d never seen before. Here’s what I saw:
Permanent Common
Ring-billed Gull, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, Song Sparrow, American Goldfinch
Summer Common
Green-backed Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Willow Flycatcher, Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue-winged Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Indigo Bunting, Brown-headed Cowbird, Baltimore Oriole
Migrant Uncommon
Solitary Sandpiper, Brown Creeper, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Northern Parula, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler
The Saturday mornings brought adventure, thought, and a birding community. One of the best things I learned from this birding experience is that identifying birds is a skill and it takes time and practice. I hope to do more in the near future.
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