We’ll head to the Cornell Plantations’ Mundy Wildflower Garden tomorrow morning. If you’re planning on walking there, please let Adrianna know.  I’ll meet the group in the parking lot at around 8:05–should be a good morning for birding after all the rain today! New birds might include kinglets, juncos, nuthatches, thrasher, & great blue heron–in a couple of past years we’ve discovered screech owls and a nestbuilding cooper’s hawk, so anything’s possible!  Take a look at the map below and think a little bit about the habitat–where might be good places to look for birds?

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I also wanted to list the birds from the last two classes–take a look at each list & let me know if you think I’ve missed something! So far, by my count we’ve seen about 38 species of birds (though not all of them were seen by everybody in class)…

Location:     Cass Park
Observation date:     4/7/11
Notes:     During COE birding class trip to Cass Park
Number of species:     25

Canada Goose     2
Mallard     4
Common Merganser     1
Killdeer     2
Ring-billed Gull     1
Great Black-backed Gull     1
Rock Pigeon     2
Mourning Dove     5
Downy Woodpecker     1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     1
Eastern Phoebe     1
Blue Jay     3
American Crow     4
Black-capped Chickadee     3
Carolina Wren     1
American Robin     8
European Starling     15
Song Sparrow     5
Northern Cardinal     5
Red-winged Blackbird     8
Common Grackle     4
Brown-headed Cowbird     3
House Finch     2
American Goldfinch     3
House Sparrow     4

Location:     Stewart Park, Ithaca
Observation date:     4/12/11
Notes:     COE class trip to Stewart Park
Number of species:     33

Canada Goose     25
Wood Duck     2
American Wigeon     1
Mallard     15
Redhead     2
Ring-necked Duck     1
Greater Scaup     12
Bufflehead     7
Hooded Merganser     2
Common Merganser     11
Rock Pigeon     7
Mourning Dove     2
Belted Kingfisher     1
Northern Flicker     1
Pileated Woodpecker     1
Eastern Phoebe     1
Blue Jay     7
American Crow     3
Tree Swallow     15
Barn Swallow     4
Black-capped Chickadee     2
Tufted Titmouse     1
White-breasted Nuthatch     1
Carolina Wren     1
American Robin     7
European Starling     55
Song Sparrow     2
Northern Cardinal     1
Red-winged Blackbird     6
Common Grackle     12
Brown-headed Cowbird     1
American Goldfinch     2
House Sparrow     7

Tomorrow will find us (hopefully dry) watching birds in the open areas around the ponds at the F.R. Newman Arboretum on campus.  Some of the birds we can hope to see there include birds you’ll likely know (like American Robin, Canada Goose, Mallard, Red-winged Blackbird, and Common Grackle); some birds you may or may not know (like Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Phoebe, Northern Flicker); and some birds you probably don’t know (like Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Chipping Sparrow).  Only time will tell…

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Hello! Hopefully you’re excited to get out and see some new birds this Spring, as well as get to know some common birds a lot better than you’ve known in the past.  To get things started, prior to coming to our first class on Thursday 31 March, please take the course preliminary survey online at

http://goo.gl/orSdf

Keep in mind that there are no wrong answers here–this is to get a good feel for where we’re starting from, and to hopefully help us tailor the class to everyone’s interests and experience. 

Second: if you have the time, take a look at a few videos produced by our multimedia group here at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology–I’ve embedded the first one into this blog post below, but the rest can be found here. Looking forward to many fun mornings birding with you all this Spring!

Tomorrow morning we’ll depart at 7:45 sharp for the Durland Bird Sanctuary on Ellis Hollow Creek Rd. you can search the contents of this blog to find directions there if needed. The entrance is locked and I will plan on meeting the group there. See you in the AM!

Tomorrow’s birding class will find us in the Arboretum portion of the Cornell Plantations. If you’re driving separately, meet at the parking lot near the ponds with the gazebo & dress warmly! Temps are supposed to be in the low 30s with a 10-15 mph wind! Great birding weather

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In case you missed Tuesday’s walk, here’s a record of what we saw during a warm morning birding the west side of Cass Park:

Location:     Cass Park
Observation date:     4/20/10
Notes:     COE course
Number of species:     26

Canada Goose     2
Mallard     2
Common Merganser     2
Killdeer     1
Ring-billed Gull     2
Mourning Dove     2
Red-bellied Woodpecker     2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker     1
Downy Woodpecker     3
Hairy Woodpecker     1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     2
Pileated Woodpecker     1
Blue Jay     2
American Crow     4
Black-capped Chickadee     2
Tufted Titmouse     3
Carolina Wren     2
Eastern Bluebird     3
American Robin     8
Northern Mockingbird     1
European Starling     12
Song Sparrow     4
Northern Cardinal     2
Red-winged Blackbird     7
Brown-headed Cowbird     3
American Goldfinch     10

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Tomorrow will find us high atop Mt Pleasant, in hopefully pleasant weather. A couple birds we might see there include Savannah Sparrow, Blue-headed Vireo, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Hermit Thrush!  If we’re lucky there may even be raptors overhead by the time we’re getting ready to leave…Dress warmly!

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Sorry for the lateness of this post!  We’ll decamp to Cass Park tomorrow AM to search for birds in the shrubby edges of the open grasses.  If you’re driving separately, plan to meet at the parking lot near the turtle. Hope to see you there…

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Here’s a list of birds that I saw or heard while we were at Stewart Park–did I miss anything that you saw?

Location:     Stewart Park, Ithaca

Observation date:     4/13/10
Number of species:     33

Canada Goose     9
Wood Duck     3
Mallard     22
Lesser Scaup     4
Hooded Merganser     3
Common Merganser     8
Turkey Vulture     7
Bald Eagle     1
Red-tailed Hawk     1
Ring-billed Gull     15
Rock Pigeon     2
Mourning Dove     2
Great Horned Owl     2
Belted Kingfisher     1
Downy Woodpecker     1
Hairy Woodpecker     1
Northern Flicker     3
Eastern Phoebe     1
Blue Jay     1
American Crow     6
Fish Crow     4
Tree Swallow     2
Black-capped Chickadee     1
Tufted Titmouse     1
White-breasted Nuthatch     1
American Robin     4
European Starling     15
Song Sparrow     3
Northern Cardinal     2
Red-winged Blackbird     9
Common Grackle     3
House Finch     1
American Goldfinch     1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Thursday’s trip will find us walking along the brushy-bordered East Hill Recreation Way to look for a variety of forest birds, raptors around the pheasant farm, and if there’s time, sparrows out in the fields along Dodge Road.  Parking is on Game Farm Rd., and the van will be departing from Bartels around 7:50.  Should be a good morning–cool but calm.  Hope to see you there!

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