Saturday at Hills Creek State Park

This morning's bird walk was exceptional on many fronts. We had a dozen participants (not one of them camping at the park, however), we saw 35 species of birds in just two hours of walking, and we all had a great time.

There were a myriad of water fowl on the lake and, with the wind virtually nonexistent, each bird stood out. Even though they tried to pull that old trick of always being on the far side of the lake, we still got a good look through the spotting scope of Double-crested Cormorants, Horned Grebes, Lesser Scaup, Common Loon and more way, way out there. And spotting the Barred Owl resting in the hemlocks and fir trees as we walked underneath...again and again, was a real treat.
Only a few springtime species are starting to show up in the fields and thickets so things can get much better before the summer doldrums arrive.

Any way, here's my report for the day's outing:

Location: Hills Creek State Park
Observation date: 4/18/09
Notes: Beautiful morning with 12 participants for the Hills Creek bird walk. Spotting the Barred Owl across from the host campground was the highlight but close behind were the Hooded Grebes and Double-crested Cormorants out on the lake.
Number of species: 35

Canada Goose X
Wood Duck X
Mallard X
Ring-necked Duck X
Lesser Scaup X
Bufflehead X
Common Merganser (North American) X
Wild Turkey X
Common Loon X
Pied-billed Grebe X
Horned Grebe X
Double-crested Cormorant X
Turkey Vulture X
Broad-winged Hawk X
Killdeer X
Barred Owl X
Belted Kingfisher X
Northern Flicker X
Eastern Phoebe X
American Crow X
Black-capped Chickadee X
Red-breasted Nuthatch X
White-breasted Nuthatch X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet X
American Robin X
European Starling X
Magnolia Warbler X
Field Sparrow X
Song Sparrow X
White-throated Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) X
Northern Cardinal X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Pine Siskin X
American Goldfinch X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)