Fowl Meadow with Patty ONeill, 5/15/18

Four intrepid birders joined Patty on her midweek Fowl Meadow walk. I say intrepid because the night before we experienced severe thunderstorms and heavy rain. The rubber boots mostly kept our feet dry - they did little however to keep the very pesky bugs off. Mosquito spray only goes so far, we would have needed to wear nets....
While this was very annoying, as soon as we started to see some really cool birds this was forgotten!
All along the trail we glimpsed Yellow Warbler and Common Yellowthroat, then we heard and saw the first of the year Willow Flycatcher, admired Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Baltimore Oriole before focusing our bins on a distant lump on a tree branch:

This Common Nighthawk turned out to be the highlight of the trip, Photo by Steven Whitebread

Unfortunately some of us had to leave at that point, however the rest of the group carried on and ended the trip with a total of 44 species. Thanks to Patty for leading the trip and to Steven for going the extra mile (literally) to get this great photo!

Fowl Meadow, Norfolk, Massachusetts, US
May 16, 2018 7:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Protocol: Traveling
3.0 mile(s)
Comments:     SSBC trip led by Patty O'Neill, some participants had to leave early
44 species

Canada Goose  2
Wood Duck  1
Mallard  1
Great Egret  2
Black-billed Cuckoo  1
Common Nighthawk  1     Roosting on tree limb, picked up by Christine
Chimney Swift  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1
Willow Flycatcher  1
Great Crested Flycatcher  3
Warbling Vireo  3
Red-eyed Vireo  4
Blue Jay  2
American Crow  6
Common Raven  4     2 adults and two juveniles on and around large barn-like structure near highway. We saw one bird fly out of the barn, presumed nest inside.
Barn Swallow  1
Black-capped Chickadee  3
Tufted Titmouse  3
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
House Wren  1
Veery  2
Wood Thrush  5
American Robin  8
Gray Catbird  9
Ovenbird  3
Northern Waterthrush  2
Blue-winged Warbler  5
Black-and-white Warbler  8
Common Yellowthroat  17
Yellow Warbler  12
Pine Warbler  1
Black-throated Green Warbler  1
Song Sparrow  4
Swamp Sparrow  7
Eastern Towhee  4
Northern Cardinal  2
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  7
Baltimore Oriole  6
Red-winged Blackbird  24
Common Grackle  8
American Goldfinch  2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S45738878

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)