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| Eastern Meadowlark photo'd by Charles Tang |
Leader Adelia Harrison
This evening walk was a special program hosted by the wonderful outdoor educators of Shirley Chisholm State Park Ciara Scully and Tiffany Yeung. It was a rare opportunity to be on the grasslands after the park closes well after sunset. We started at 2 pm for some daylight birding. It was a beautiful day. Cold but sunny with little wind. We hiked up to the top and got a perfect Eastern Meadowlark perched on the tippy top of the tree. We then hiked down to the path along the water to look at ducks, gulls and shorebirds. As the sun sank in the sky the horizontal light made the ducks on the water look especially stunning, with a Common Goldeneye's head a dazzling emerald. Along the trail we also got four American Tree Sparrows and a Fox Sparrow. For the second part of the hike, after the park closed we again ascended onto the grasslands. We were treated to three different plumages of Northern Harriers, a female, a juvenile and a grey ghost who was hunting until the sun disappeared. I started a new checklist just as the sun was going down and that list had only three species, the grey ghost Northern Harrier, a Red-tailed Hawk and some Savannah Sparrows. Sadly, we did not see any species of owl, including the Snowy Owl that has been present there recently. But overall, the evening yielded 38 species. We hope to do more partnership events with the staff at SCSP.
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| American Tree Sparrow photo'd by Charles Tang |
American Black Duck (Anas rubripes) |
| American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) |
| American Robin |
| American Tree Sparrow (Spizelloides arborea) |
| American Wigeon (Mareca americana) |
| Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) |
| Brant (Branta bernicla) |
| Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) |
| Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) |
| Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) |
| Common Raven (Corvus corax) |
| crow sp. (Corvus sp. (crow sp.)) |
| Double-crested Cormorant (Nannopterum auritum) |
| Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna) |
| Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca) |
| Gadwall (Mareca strepera) |
| Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) |
| Great Blue Heron |
| Greater Scaup (Aythya marila) |
| Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) |
| Hooded Merganser |
| Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus) |
| House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) |
| Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) |
| Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) |
| Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) |
| Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius) |
| Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) |
| Peregrine Falcon |
| Pied-billed grebe |
| Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator) |
| Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) |
| Red-throated Loon |
| Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) |
| Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) |
| Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) |
| Sanderling |
| Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) |
