A short distance from our home sits the Connemara Meadow Conservancy. This nature preserve began when a family donated its family farm to a land trust. The preserve is now surrounded by suburban homes, but maintains a rural charm.
Each first Sunday the local Audubon society and the preserve schedule a bird walk. I went at 8 a.m to join in. The weather was cool but not cold (around 50 degrees). The day started off a bit overcast, leading to quiet birds. But as the morning wore on,
we saw more birds. The guides, Gailon and Rodney are great. They helped me with confirming my merlin sighting earlier this week. They guided us capably today.
Our party today included ten birders, all polite and down-to-earth.
My eBird count for the three-hour walk reads thus:
32 species
Canada Goose 10
Mallard 3
Double-crested Cormorant 10
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Ring-billed Gull 9
Mourning Dove 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 5
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 2
American Kestrel 2
Eastern Phoebe 3
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 3
Carolina Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 3
Brown Creeper 1
Winter Wren 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
Eastern Bluebird 5
American Robin 1
Northern Mockingbird 11
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
Spotted Towhee 1
Field Sparrow 1
Fox Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 3
Northern Cardinal 6
Red-winged Blackbird 21
American Goldfinch 7
Of this list, the Winter Wren was probably the "find", as usually one sees the year-round Carolina Wren (today we heard many,but I did not see any). The Winter
Wren was the "find" of the day, as it is a Winter visitor who summers in Canada and is not always seen on these walks. I really enjoyed the walk,though I was a bit chilly in my green fleece.
The walk ended at 11:30 a.m. I went and got gas for my car. At 2:00 p.m., I went to Weight Watchers. My weight was up,but that makes sense, since last week it was
too far down (indicating that water loss from exercise made a difference) From the Sunday before Thanksgiving to now I am down two pounds.
After my meeting, I went to Whichwhich,where holiday crowds meant a slight wait for my sandwich. I do not begrudge them the business, though. Busy holidays subsidize the rest of the year, so to speak.
I stopped in Dollar Tree to hunt a one dollar scarf, but none was to be found. I stopped in Staples and bought a sale 32 GB USB driver. I looked at refurbished laptops on eBay (for a friend) and at nose flutes on eBay.
Now we are watching a show of "crossover classical" by a 14-year-old girl on PBS. She has a great voice but the material she sings is different than what I would have her sing.But, understandably, she did not ask me. We dined on salmon and oven-fried sweet potatoes, and salad.
