Birding Parker River NWR by Bike ~ 05-01-10

This morning, Mark and I led our annual spring birding by bike trip for the Brookline Bird Club at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. Eight other bike and birding enthusiasts joined us at Parking Lot #1 at 6:30AM.

Weather-wise, this was one of the best days we have had for this trip - the temperature ranged between 51 and 75 df, no wind, and abundant sunshine! We birded our way south to the Hellcat Trail and back over a 5-hour period. We tallied 77 species for the Club list, of which 12 species were warblers! Following is a complete list of the birds we saw:

Common Loon - 2; Double-crested Cormorant – 4; Great-blue Heron – 4; Great Egret -7; Snowy Egret – 3; Glossy Ibis - 7; Canada Goose - 70;

Mute Swan - 4

Gadwall – 5

American Black Duck - 12; Mallard – 53; Blue-winged Teal - 3; Green-winged Teal - 2; Ring-necked Duck - 1; Osprey - 5; Northern Harrier - 2; American Kestrel - 1; Merlin - 1; Peregrine Falcon - 1

Sora – 1; Killdeer - 3; Greater Yellowlegs – 9; Willet - 11; Wilson’s Snipe – 1; Ring-billed Gull - 3; Herring Gull - 20; Great Black-backed Gull - 1; Mourning Dove – 26; Belted Kingfisher – 3; Hairy Woodpecker – 1; Northern Flicker – 1; Eastern Phoebe – 2; Eastern Kingbird – 7; Blue-headed Vireo – 12; Warbling Vireo – 1; Red-eyed Vireo - 2; Blue Jay - 5; American Crow – 42; Fish Crow - 1; Purple Martin - 5; Tree Swallow - 350; Barn Swallow – 60; Black-capped Chickadee - 8; Golden-crowned Kinglet – 4; Ruby-crowned Kinglet – 280; Hermit Thrush - 5; American Robin – 75; Gray Catbird - 3; Northern Mockingbird - 2; Brown Thrasher - 14; European Starling – 120

WARBLERS: Nashville – 10; Northern Parula – 12; Yellow - 40; Black-throated Blue – 3; Yellow-rumped - 150; Black-throated Green – 7; Prairie – 3; Palm – 16; Black-and-white – 53; Ovenbird – 2; Northern Waterthrush – 27; Common Yellowthroat – 2

Eastern Towhee - 55; Savannah Sparrow – 13; Seaside Sparrow - 2; Song Sparrow – 33; Swamp Sparrow - 6; White-throated Sparrow – 175; Northern Cardinal – 24; Red-winged Blackbird -190; Eastern Meadowlark - 1; Common Grackle - 90; Brown-headed Cowbird - 20; Purple Finch - 1; American Goldfinch – 24; House Sparrow - 10.

We had an aMAYzing morning of birding and I hope you did too.

Happy Migration!