My Big Month - Day 25

Today's birding outing was another field trip away from Palmer Lake Park. I'd noticed just a couple days earlier that there was a regular birding hike scheduled at Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park. I'd heard a lot about this monthly (or more) walk conducted by an extremely skilled naturalist and birder and that you can see quite a few things with his help. And boy did we ever! From the moment we set out, our guide was pointing out birds I'd never seen before such as a Northern Rough-winged Swallow! I'd never seen these before but they were in quick flight just like most other Swallows, only you could tell that they were mostly a brown color with no trace of blue on the top like other common Swallows. Another good sighting was of a Bay-breasted Warbler in non-breeding plumage! I only caught a glimpse of this quickly through my binoculars but I could see a faint rosy red patch on the breast. We also got to hear –but not see– a Mourning Warbler. With such experienced guidance, we saw a total of 50 different species as a group, though I can't claim that I saw each of these for myself. So below I will do my best to list only the ones I specifically saw. Oh, also when I arrived at 7:45 am, I spotted a Killdeer right outside the building! I can't say I've seen a Killdeer for the longest time and tend to only see them way out in the country along gravel roads. So that was another good sighting for me. Among the Warblers there were a lot of other smaller birds spotted today which always makes getting photos challenging. But one of my favorite of the day was this brilliant blue male Indigo Bunting that our guide heard way before we even saw him. This is just the second Indigo I've seen this year and neither has been at Palmer Lake Park, though I'm sure they are there somewhere. Besides being so nice to look at they also make quite beautiful songs and we got to hear and watch him singing loudly. The other bird I wanted to post from today is from a group of birds that I just have the hardest time distinguishing from one another. I typically can identify something as a Flycatcher, but telling them apart takes way more experience than I have. Then throw Pewees into the mix and I am totally baffled. In addition to identifying a handful of other Flycatchers, our guide pointed this bird out to the group as an Eastern Wood Pewee. Since they look SO similar to me I asked for some guidance and he stated that they were a bit more stocky in shape and also tend to flick both their tail and wings at the same time. I hope as time goes on that I can start to notice these small details for myself because for now, I just pretty much identify every similar bird as a Least Flycatcher. Now I'm pretty sure that some of those Least Flycatchers I've seen may have very well been a different bird.

Total Species Seen Today (by me personally): Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, Canada Goose, Mallard, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Killdeer, Mourning Dove, Chimney Swift, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Wood Pewee, Least Flycatcher, Great Crested Flycatcher, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, American Crow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow, Black-capped Chickadee, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Eastern Bluebird, American Robin, Gray Catbird, Yellow Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, American Redstart, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Baltimore Oriole, House Finch, American Goldfinch, and a Great Egret on the drive home!

Conditions: 56 degrees and overcast.