Early on, I said its warm and there is no wind. A few minutes the wind got up. By the time we were done, birds were blowing past us in the wind, Weeds were blowing past us in the wind, heck, even birders were blowing in the wind. But what is a Spring trip to Cone Marsh without your eyes watering as you look through your scope.
We left Iowa City with 12 birders, picked up two more in Lone Tree and 2 more at the marsh. Actually there were 4 more at the marsh. By the time we returned we had 5 people. Hopefully the others made it home. The birders ranged in age from ~4 to nearly 70.
We started at the owl nest in Lone Tree, on our way down and at Trueblood, on our way back. At the pit stop in Lone Tree, we found the first tick of the season.
The birds 20 Greater White-fronted Goose, 40 Snow Goose, 80 Canada Goose, 2 Mute Swan, 2 Gadwall, 20 American Wigeon, 60 Mallard, 10 Blue-winged Teal, 42 Northern Shoveler, 60 Northern Pintail, 70 Canvasback, 4 Redhead, 40 Ring-necked Duck, 60 Lesser Scaup, 10 Bufflehead, 2 Hooded Merganser, 30 Ruddy Duck, 1 Pied-billed Grebe, 64 American White Pelican, 1 Great Blue Heron, 1 Turkey Vulture, 2 Bald Eagle), 2 Red-tailed Hawk, 50 American Coot, 4 Sandhill Crane, 13 Killdeer), 2 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 Pectoral Sandpiper, 35 Ring-billed Gull, 1 Herring Gull, 1 Eurasian Collared-Dove, 2 Great Horned Owl, 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker, 2 American Kestrel, 1 Eastern Phoebe, 7 American Crow, 1 Eastern Bluebird, 20 American Robin, 9 Song Sparrow, 1 Northern Cardinal, 175 Red-winged Blackbird, 1 Eastern Meadowlark, 30 Rusty Blackbird, 4 Brewer's Blackbird, 50 Common Grackle, and 1 House Finch.
This was an Iowa City Bird Club Trip.
Good Birding,
Rick Hollis rural North Liberty IA--- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/PayDues.aspx. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]. Unsubscribe at http://iowabirds.org/Reporting/Listserv.aspx.
