Birding on Saturday

On Saturday my bird class went on a bird watching trip to Carlos Avery wildlife management area. We saw a total of 23 species. I think the cold and rainy weather kept some birds out of our sight. We saw downy woodpeckers, Northern flicker, bald eagle, kestrel, yellow rumped warbler, palm warbler, Harrier hawk, blue winged teal, ring necked duck, scaup, wood ducks, tree swallows, barn swallow, hooded mergansers, trumpeter swans, loons, mallard, Canadian geese, red bellied woodpeckers, pileated woodpeckers, goldfinch, sand hill cranes and cormorants. We started at 7 and by 10 am we were deep into the management area and far from any asphalt roads. There were very few cars in there. The area is so remote and natural that sometimes we forget to pull over to the side of the road when we stop to look at a bird. Near the bodies of water the roads is sometimes washed out so we don't want to pull over to the side of the road because we don't want to get stuck. Our teacher had stopped his van in the middle of the road to look at a pair of kestrels flying over a marsh. I was in the back seat of the van and all five passengers had our heads turned to the left and were peering through our binoculars. Some crazy fool biker, wearing bike shorts, a helmet, and a tight biker shirt, bikes by on the driver's side of the van and into the path of five pair of binoculars, scaring us half to death. I got a close view of the first and only bicyclist I've ever seen on my many trips to Carlos Avery.