A little late-morning birding on the boardwalk and then a couple of hours of hawk watching on the tower. A fair number of ducks and coots were along the causeway. Fox and American Tree Sparrows were probably the most common songbirds on the boardwalk besides blackbirds, of course.
Some sightings along the causeway:
American Coots xxx
Tundra Swans xi
Northern Shoveler xi
Blue-winged Teal x
Gadwall xi
American Wigeon xi
Mallard xi
Northern Pintail xi
Pied-billed Grebe x
Tree Swallow xi
Some sightings on the boardwalk:
Fox Sparrows xi
American Tree Sparrows xi - many singing and flycatching. Most were up in the bushes and trees along the pond.
Rusty Blackbird xi
Not a lot of bird activity on the boardwalk. Saw a couple of butterflies: Mourning Cloak and a Comma. I'm not good with butterflies.
Went up the hawk tower at 1:00. A Red-breasted Nuthatch was foraging in the pines near the tower. A nice sighting was seeing six local Bald Eagles flying around together. A small movement of migrating raptors occurred between 1:00 and 2:30.
A light phase Rough-legged Hawk, a decent movement of Turkey Vultures, a couple Northern Harriers, a Cooper's Hawk, several Red-tailed Hawks, and a Red-shouldered Hawk.
Watched a Sharp-shinned Hawk that was soaring a few hundred feet up collapse itself into a ball and go into a near vertical dive into the ditch along the road opposite the tower. It whiffed. It was down in the ditch for a bit, and then it flew to a nearby tree, but it didn't have a bird. A nice try, anyway.
The hawk watchers saw Golden-crowned Kinglets two weeks earlier. It's almost automatic every year to see the first GCKIs of the spring for Magee along the trail by the tower in mid-March.
The weather for the day was sunny with clear skies early then high clouds in the afternoon. Temps in the 40's, maybe in the 50's in the afternoon with light to moderate winds from the east-southeast.
Not much crowd and not much greenery at this time of the spring.
Some locals along the boardwalk enjoying the sunshine.
Also along the boardwalk, a Comma Butterfly.
Indicating bird counts:
x = 1-9
xi = 10-49
xx = 50-99
xxx = 100+
Normally, or possibly even officially, xx = 10-99, but that seems too wide of a range. So until I see something better, I'll break 10-99 into two designations.
