North Star Morning Birding Species List

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Monday, August 27, 2020, 7:30 AM – 9:30AM
Weather: Sunny and clear
Location: North Star Nature Preserve, James Smith Parcel

Species Identified:

Mallard
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-naped Sapsucker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Western Wood-Pewee
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Sage Thrasher
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
Pine Siskin
Song Sparrow
Orange-crowned Warbler
MacGillivray’s Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Lazuli Bunting

Comments:

 

Our group enjoyed many special learning moments today, focusing on field marks, behaviors, and flight styles.  Special highlights included a sage thrasher and two lazuli buntings.  The sage thrasher was well away from its typical breeding range, clearly a migrating individual, and a species that is seen in the upper valley only occasionally each year.  A large flock of cedar waxwings flew within an insect swarm, hawking insects.  Five species of warblers working over the foliage in shrubs and cottonwoods gave us fleeting glimpses of their field marks, and adult and juvenile robins gave us practice at identifying these familiar birds in challenging light and at all sorts of unusual angles.  North Star Nature Preserve is a vital wildlife refuge in all seasons.  Join us next week for two special fall migration field trips to the Marolt Open Space and the Gorge of the Roaring Fork, as well as Morning Birding at Rock Bottom Ranch.~ Rebecca Weiss, ACES Bird Guide

Photo by Dale Armstrong