Mother's Day Bird Walk

Today was the Newton Conservator's Annual Mother's Day Bird Walk. We had at least fifteen people of all different levels and experience. The walk was led by Alison Leary.

It was cool and windy, but even under these conditions there were some good sightings.

We started down the river path, but the wind was so loud, it was hard to hear, so we back-tracked and took Florrie's path to the soccer field. We saw an oriole that had started building a nest. Some saw yellow-rumps, robins, song sparrows and catbirds. There was a red-eyed vireo singing in the trees between the soccer field and the upper gardens. Earlier, it was in plain view and I have a picture here to the right, although it's not very detailed.

In the lower gardens, we were greeted by the nesting tree swallows and the bubbly house wren. We also saw several yellow warblers, cowbirds, Baltimore orioles, song sparrows, Cooper's or Sharp-Shinned Hawks flying overhead as well as geese that kept flying back and forth and a red-tailed hawk.

As we moved to the upper gardens, the bluebirds were hanging out in a tree by the path. Later we saw the female on the nest box with her husband nearby. Some of our group saw a prairie warbler and a mourning warbler which is very exciting! I think a redstart was seen up here as well. Somehow, I seemed to keep missing these great sightings! There were goldfinches and more orioles.

Towards the end of the walk we moved down to the lower gardens again. Alison saw an Indigo bunting, but most of us missed it - however many in the group did get to see a Ruby Throated hummingbird which looked quite unusual in the lighting - nothing like the Ruby Throated, but I guess their iridescence can play major tricks on you. Another member of the group, I think it was Cris, saw a couple of American Redstarts down here as well.

This walk is always great fun!