02 May Bird Hike Report
Here are some tips for birding around Sutton.
If you want to see Brown thrashers and Chipping sparrows, as well as lots of crackles, song sparrow and robins head over to Domaine Gagné. For ruby-crowned kinglets and flickers head to Domaine Mont Louis. For swamp sparrows, red-wing black birds and blue jays check out the field behind the IGA parallel to the park on Pleasant (route 215). Also there is a pair of Merlins nesting in the woods behind the Legion!!! You can hear them calling in the evenings.
I had planned group birding hikes every Saturday morning starting next weekend, but given the COVID-10 restrictions we cannot gon groups anymore. This also means I am not doing a birding trip this spring. I will still do the Saturday morning hikes and give my report here. I’ve started early and did a hike May 2nd. I’ve been going birding almost daily for about 2 weeks already and have been really enjoying the birds this season. I saw my first warbler of the season on April 25th. A Yellow-rumped warbler which I mentioned with excitement in my last post. So this week I went with Rebecca and Devin and I headed out from 6:45 to 8:45 around Sutton Village and north on the 215 towards Knowlton – 4.6 km in all.
Here is what we saw:
26 species:
| Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) | |
| Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) | |
| Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) | Heard |
| Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) | |
| Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) | In flight |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) | Heard |
| Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) | |
| Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) | Heard |
| Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) | Heard |
| Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) | |
| American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) | |
| Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) | |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) | Heard |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) | Heard |
| European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) | |
| Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) | Heard |
| American Robin (Turdus migratorius) | |
| American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) | |
| Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina) | |
| White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) | |
| Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) | |
| Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) | |
| Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) | |
| Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) | |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata) | Heard |
| Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) |
It was around 0 degrees but still a great morning for birding!
Carolyn
Posted at 15:20h, 23 MayJohn and I saw a pair of tree swallows this week. They’ve been gone for years. We used to have so many.