Birds Before Dinner - Friday, August 5th, 2016

How often do you get to see the inaugural flight of a bird with a 5-foot wingspan? We did tonight, soon after one of the two young Osprey on the east path platform practiced vigorous flapping, then periods of hovering directly over the nest, before taking off for a flight around the nest and back. Shorebird numbers are building with many Least Sandpipers and a smattering of other shorebirds. And you have to look closely at the Snowy Egrets now, because some of them are Little Blue Herons!
Leaders: Kathy Horn, Roger Horn, and Bert Hixon.
45 species

Canada Goose  25
Mute Swan  6
Mallard  13
Brown Pelican  14    
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  2
Snowy Egret  9
Little Blue Heron  2
Glossy Ibis  1
Osprey  4
American Oystercatcher  5
Semipalmated Plover  2
Killdeer  8
Spotted Sandpiper  3
Greater Yellowlegs  1
Lesser Yellowlegs  9
Least Sandpiper  24
Semipalmated Sandpiper  7
Short-billed Dowitcher  3
Laughing Gull  75
Herring Gull (American)  4
Great Black-backed Gull  6
Least Tern  4
Common Tern  6
Forster's Tern  18
Black Skimmer  4
Mourning Dove  6
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1
Fish Crow  5
Purple Martin  3
Tree Swallow  6
Barn Swallow  2
Carolina Wren  2
American Robin  4
Northern Mockingbird  2
European Starling  40
Cedar Waxwing  13
Field Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  3
Northern Cardinal  1
Red-winged Blackbird  16
Orchard Oriole  1
House Finch  1
American Goldfinch  4
House Sparrow  5

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

Juvenile Osprey's first flight! [Photo by Roger Horn]