The plan: A 2-hour birding tour* with Chris, this time to Beaver Meadow Conservation Area, a local wetland habitat. Beaver Meadow is not a hiking adventure. Instead you walk a trail for about 1/2 km to a viewing platform that looks out over a large marshy area. Then you settle in with your binoculars and just wait for the birds.
The goal: I wanted to see a Bittern (a type of heron). There are 2 species of Bittern found in NA, the Least and the American and I would be happy with either. Turns out we would encounter both (!!) – three American Bitterns flying overhead and one Least Bittern that we both heard calling but never managed to see. I recorded the American in my life list, but will wait until I *see* the Least to do the same.
Species Prediction: My guess going in was that we’d see the typical birds you find at a marsh or a small lake. A few kinds of ducks (that Chris would be able to tell apart for me), swans, geese, maybe terns. Call it around 20 species if we were lucky. Achievement: 50 species! To be fair, I wasn’t far off as far as water-located birds are concerned. What I didn’t expect was to find 30 or so species of songbirds, which I can once again attributed to Chris’s bird finding superpowers.
Nature Walk Bonus: In addition to being an amazing birder, Chris is an expert naturalist, and along our very short walk he pointed out a myriad of fauna specimens. I only remember one, because I learned about it in school but have never actually seen it – a Jack-in-the-pulpit!
Here, for record keeping, is the complete list of bird species.
- Canada Goose
- Mute Swan
- Wood Duck
- Mallard
- Common Gallinule
- Virginia Rail
- Sandhill Crane
- Killdeer
- Ring-billed Gull
- Caspian Tern
- Black Tern
- American Bittern <– LIFER
- Least Bittern <– A would-be lifer, but we only heard it, I wasn’t lucky enough to see it
- Green Heron
- Great Blue Heron
- Turkey Vulture
- Sharp-shinned Hawk
- Belted Kingfisher
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Downy Woodpecker
- Pileated Woodpecker
- Eastern Wood-Pewee
- Great Crested Flycatcher
- Eastern Kingbird
- Warbling Vireo
- Red-eyed Vireo
- Blue Jay
- American Crow
- Bank Swallow
- Tree Swallow
- Barn Swallow
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Marsh Wren
- Gray Catbird
- Wood Thrush
- American Robin
- Cedar Waxwing
- American Goldfinch
- Swamp Sparrow
- Baltimore Oriole
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Common Grackle
- Common Yellowthroat
- American Redstart
- Yellow Warbler (Northern)
- Pine Warbler
- Black-throated Green Warbler
- Northern Cardinal
- Rose-breasted Grosbeak
- Mourning Dove
*Date of tour: May 28, 2025. Seems important for context.
Super amazing. That is all I can say!