Birding Carlos Avery

I had a great time birding at Carlos Avery WMA on Monday, May 5 with my co-workers as a staff development morning. Here's our bird list for the entire day. A couple of these birds were seen offsite of Carlos Avery.

Red-winged Blackbird, Canada Goose, Blue-winged Teal, Mallard, Song Sparrow, American Robin, Hooded Merganser, Great Egret, Great Blue
Heron, American Crow, Brown-headed Cowbird, Eastern Bluebird, Pied-billed grebe, Tree swallow, American Goldfinch, House Finch, Common Grackle, Myrtle Warbler, Palm Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, American kestrel, Bufflehead, Downy Woodpecker, Black-capped Chickadee, Blue Jay, Common Loon, White-Crowned Sparrow, Northern Flicker, American Coot, Swamp Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, Northern Shoveler, wood duck, Northern Cardinal, Gadwall, Northern Harrier, Cliff Swallow, Barred Owl, Red-tailed Hawk, Common Merganser, Lesser Scaup, Mourning Dove, Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Wild Turkey, Song Sparrow, Sandhill Crane, Ring-necked Duck, Bald Eagle, Ring-billed Gull, Slate-colored Junco.

That's 50 birds for the day. I did manage to get some photos with my new camera. I got this shot of a "butter butt" aka the Myrtle Warbler. It isn;t the best shot ever but I live the water in the background.



I had a chance to get some great shots of Great Egrets. There were two of them who posed for some fun shots. I'll probably post more later but I don't have a lot of time to look through them all right now. Be sure to click on them for the larger view. you can see some beautiful breeding plumage.



Two other fun shots. There were lots of blue-winged teal but I only managed to capture this one half-way decent shot as they were very shy.
The last shot is this long view of a sandhill crane. Maybe I'll try to crop it in later. Click for more detail. It is hanging out in a recently burned area.
That's all for now! It was a good day of birding and nice to try out my camera. I need more practice with it but it was a good start. That morning I also caught a passing glimpse of a Red-headed Woodpecker on Co Rd. 15. It flew out and landed on a street sign just as I passed.

2008 Running Bird Tally
82 Red-headed Woodpecker
83 Palm Warbler
84 Yellow Warbler
85 Cliff Swallow
86 White-Crowned Sparrow,
87 Northern Flicker