A Meadows Afternoon - Friday, April 16th, 2016

A very nice group of folks joined CMBO naturalists for the season's first installment of " A Meadows Afternoon." We enjoyed a number of swallows feeding low over the ponds, including a single Cliff Swallow and a bonus Chimney Swift. A dwindling collection of waterfowl remain on the ponds, and newly-arrived shorebird migrants included Greater Yellowlegs, Least Sandpiper, and Spotted Sandpiper. Passerine highlights included Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Brown Thrasher, and prolonged views of a singing Field Sparrow. Leaders: Gail Dwyer, Barb Bassett, Marc & Lynn Breslow, and Tom Reed.
64 species

Canada Goose  30
Mute Swan  5
Gadwall  25
American Black Duck  1
Mallard  30
Northern Shoveler  9
Green-winged Teal  20
Surf Scoter  1
Black Scoter  1
Bufflehead  4
Red-throated Loon  1
Pied-billed Grebe  1
Northern Gannet  30
Double-crested Cormorant  5
Great Egret  3
Black Vulture  3
Turkey Vulture  5
Osprey  8
Northern Harrier  2
Cooper's Hawk  1
Bald Eagle  3
Red-tailed Hawk  1
American Coot  4
American Oystercatcher  6
Killdeer  2
Spotted Sandpiper  1     *medium-small, brown/white shorebird with spots on underparts, stiff/shallow wingbeats. expected on this date.
Greater Yellowlegs  1
Least Sandpiper  2
Wilson's Snipe  1
Laughing Gull  60
Ring-billed Gull  2
Herring Gull  30
Great Black-backed Gull  6
Forster's Tern  3
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  1
Mourning Dove  2
Chimney Swift  1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)  1
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  2
Fish Crow  5
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  4
Purple Martin  30
Tree Swallow  35
Barn Swallow  15
Cliff Swallow  1
Carolina Chickadee  2
Carolina Wren  2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
American Robin  3
Brown Thrasher  1
Northern Mockingbird  1
European Starling  5
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)  3
Field Sparrow  2
White-throated Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  4
Eastern Towhee  1
Northern Cardinal  2
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Common Grackle  3
Brown-headed Cowbird  1
House Finch  2
House Sparrow  3

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)