Part two of three of our Spring Bird Count wrap-up we recount the wonderful birds we found over a 4+ hour hike at a way cool preserve called Sugar River Alder.
Before heading to our next stop, Sugar River Alder Forest Preserve, we had a quick lunch break by the Sugar River. A Baltimore Oriole sang the entire time and we had our first Eastern Towhee of the day.
Sugar River Alder is a wonderful preserve with a lot of miles of trails to cover. We were keyed up to cover the majority of them but the going was slow as we observed a wide variety of species. Some of the main highlights were our one and only American Redstart (!) and four Red-headed Woodpeckers.
There were several times during our trek that we were wishing the camera wasn’t in the car. Scarlet Tanagers perched twenty feet away, Indigo Buntings sang recklessly in our faces, and a pair of Lark Sparrows mated unabashedly in full view.
Baltimore Orioles were everywhere creating a few odd remarks:
“Just another oriole.”
“I can’t hear that warbler over the oriole!”
“Are there any ‘non-orioles’ in that tree?”
Of course, we can’t complain since they are such beautiful birds!
As 5:00 rolled around, 1/2 of our team headed home but we (Birdfreak and Veery) still had a few more hours so we went off in search of Clay-colored Sparrows before hitting some marshes and night-time spots.
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