Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
Photo by Bryan Henson

Normally, the bird walk on the third Sunday of the month is at Bles Park, but the park is currently closed for construction, so we relocated to Algonkian Park.  A dozen birders came out for this St. Paddy’s day walk that was quite comfortable with warm weather.  The walk started off well with three Blue-winged Teal flying up river.  As the group gathered, we spotted many species right at the meeting spot, including a Bald Eagle, Ring-billed Gulls, a Great Blue Heron, White-throated Sparrows, a Yellow-rumped Warbler and more.  As we headed down the trail, we saw our first-of-year Tree Swallows and Osprey flying overhead.  We spotted several ducks including Common Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser, Hooded Merganser and Mallard.

We received word of a Barred Owl sighting on the other end of the park, so we headed that way looking for the it.  Despite not finding the owl, we did find a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in that area, adding to our woodpecker total.  Although we didn’t find a Hairy Woodpecker, we found the other six of our local woodpeckers, including a Red-headed Woodpecker.  All told, we found 49 species of birds in a delightful few hours together.   The full checklist can be viewed on eBird at: https://ebird.org/checklist/S165152656

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