First Fridays - Eva Varga

Our new Roots & Shoots group meets on the first Friday of each month.  Our leader, Karen, picks the trail and/or location.  I love that she is an avid birder and that I am learning as much as the kiddos.  This past week, we went for a walk along  the river … a trail in which we are very familiar … and she pointed out the Bald Eagle nest to us.

Bald Eagle sitting on her nest

Fortunately, the female (we assume) was present and sitting upon her brood.  Though I do not have a great camera, if you click upon the image to enlarge it, you can see her head just above her nest.   We spent quite a bit of time observing the eagle and watching the other birds in the area.  We came up with quite an extensive list:  

• 3 Double-crested Cormorants
• 1 Blue Heron
• 20 Canada Geese
• 1 Gadwall
• 2 Common Mergansers
• 2 Canvasbacks
• 12 Buffleheads
• at least 10 Mallards
• 1 Ring-necked Duck 
• a possible Black Scoter
• 3 Turkey Vultures 
• 6 killdeer
• 1 Mourning Dove
• 25 Coots
• about 200 gulls
• 1 Anna’s Hummingbird
• 1 Northern Flicker
• about 3 Western Scrubjays
• 3 Oak Titmice
• at least 5 bushtits
• 1 Bewick’s Wren
• 2 American Robins
• 1 House Finch. 

Interesting growth patterns or galls ?? on the trunk of an old Oak tree

Pinipevine (the plant on which the Pipevine Swallowtail we observed in Aug lays its eggs)

Sadly, this tree has been girdled by deer and will likely die

Cliff Swallow nests

The munchkins haven’t yet illustrated their observations in their journals.  I am curious what they will select.  Along the walk, however, I collected several twig samples for a twig study I hope to accomplish in the next few days.