Field Ornithology: Wetlands

Date: 5/24/2021
Start: 7:47 (note: this site was 50+ mins away from my home)
End: 12:00
Location: Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (Sudbury, MA)
Weather: 61 degrees at start, partly cloudy, wind East 4mph
Habitat: mostly deciduous woods surrounding a scrub-shrub wetland with a slow moving river running through it

• hill in woods which leads down to wetland
• species: paper birch, sensitive fern, wood fern, silver maple, white oak, witch hazel, eastern hemlock, tall grass, cinnamon fern, royal fern, bottonbush, water chestnut
• I spent the majority of my time by the river as well as by the shrubs near the water

I started my birding on the Weir Hill trail, however, the trail went deeper in the woods so I verged off of it, going toward the Sudbury River. The most prominent (and annoying) species present in this area were the Red-winged Blackbirds. The numerous variations in their calls made other species' calls hard to pick out. The first call that I was able to pick out was the Common Yellowthroat. As I walked further down the river, the shrubs began to block my view of the water. I was able to hear a Canada Goose through the shrubs. I decided to go up the hill in the woods and heard some Tufted Titmice, Northern Cardinals, American Robins, and White-breasted Nuthatches. I decided to try and go a little closer into the shrubs and did some spishing. Four Song Sparrows seemed to enjoy the noise and came out of the shrubs to greet me. I didn't see many other species around so I rounded back to the trail and to a boat launch where I saw a Great Blue Heron who heard me before I even saw it. It flew from the water to the other side of the wetland where I couldn't see it. The wingspan of the bird was incredible and the black edges on it's wings highly contrasted the white on it's body. I decided to sit on the boat launch hoping it would come back. It didn't, but across the river, I saw an Eastern Kingbird flying from the shrubs, quickly to the water, and then back to the shrubs. Shortly after, a Purple Martin visited. It had an odd strategy of catching flies, it was dipping down, close to the water and coming back up, then turning around, creating a large oval.

I went down the Red Maple trail which had a bit of woods and a lookout to the wetland. I saw a couple more Herons flying together, hovering over the water before landing. Below the lookout were some American Robins hopping around in search of food on the moist ground. I saw one Common Yellowthroat which then got chased down by two Red-winged Blackbirds. They seemed to have a monopoly over the trees and tall shrubs. I went back into the woods where I saw two Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, one male and one female. The female had a stick in her mouth, probably adding onto their nest while the male stood close by. I went deeper in the woods and saw a Grey Catbird, doing short calls atop a dead snag. At the end of my trip, I had the pleasure of seeing a Red-tailed Hawk, near the parking lot, likely using air thermals as it was swirling upwards in a spiral gaining altitude. All-in-all it was a pretty long and tiring trip but so amazing to be able to see so many new species which I hadn't seen before.

Julkaistu toukokuu 24, 2021 10:18 IP. käyttäjältä avilensky