Sunday Birding

• I am still working on my priority block for the breeding bird atlas. A fellow master naturalist and I got permission to survey the Boy Scout property on Sunday evening. We got there about 6 o'clock and continued until almost 9 p.m. We had our most luck on the nature trail that goes through a mixed forest, around an alder swamp, and right over a small wetland. We found an observation tower. We decided to climb the ladder to get up there. This thing is designed for boy scouts, not full adult women with arthritis. We made it and stood up there listening to all the bird sounds. I wish I was a better birder by sound. I heard robins, gold finches, pileated woodpeckers above the crows who would not stop talking. We heard blue jays. I said, "I think I heard an oriole." Two seconds later an oriole flies by us - score one for me. I heard a common yellow throat. We heard an owl in the distance but not enough to make out what owl we heard. After a while we climbed down and hiked on the path. My friend is an expert at trees and plants. She pulled a couple buck thorn trees and I was glad to see no thickets of the problem plant. We watched a song sparrow. He seemed to like being seen and perched prettily on an open branch showing us all his sides. As we watched him and talked, we heard a huge thrashing in the swamp just beyond the trees. It sounded like a bear in there thrashing around and going away. That scared the crap out of us. I'm sure it wasn't a bear but only a deer but I have never heard a deer make that much noise. We continued walking. We saw morning doves and cedar waxwings. We spotted a movement in the bottom of a scrub. The sound this bird made was mechanical and buzzy. We watched for about five minutes before we saw it clearly - a marsh wren. We walked along further and our view was blocked by taller shrubby trees. Suddenly we came on an open pond. "Maybe we'll see some shorebirds here," I said. Before we could view the entire lake, two momma ducks with ducklings and a green heron flew away in fright. Curses, why was I talking so much? Good birders should know when to keep their mouths shut. Ducklings confirm breeding and I need to know what kind of ducks these were. I wished we were sneakier. We watched the green heron for awhile. I thought one of the mother ducks was a blue winged teal but wasn't positive. We walked back to the car to get the bird book and documentation sheet. We came back quieter and smarter. We watched the mother ducks for a long time. This breeding bird atlas is hard work. It is much easier to just watch birds. Mother and baby ducks are not easy to identify because the male ducks get the colorful markings. The females are supposed to blend in. After watching the blue winged teal mother for a long time, I finally got a good luck at the blue spot on her wing. The second duck was harder. Her head shape wasn't typical but wasn't quite a merganser shape either. She had a distinctive white eye ring. Through the process of elimination, we decided she was a momma wood duck with her six ducklings. High fives in the wetland! We were proud of ourselves. We walked back to the car and drove to other spots in the park. Two more confirmed breeding species was good work for a Sunday evening.