The trails were icy! I spent more time watching my feet then looking in the trees. Fortunately all the calls and songs let me know what was up there. The sky was blue and the winds calm – it was lovely!

Alex started the walk by pointing out the grey morph Screech Owl in the box above the pond. We looked through a raft of Red-breasted Mergansers on the lake and found a few Goldeneyes. Walking the wooded bluff trails we saw or heard a lot of expected birds, A number of us had FOYs as we approached the north side of the Ulao pond – Kildeer (heard), Eastern Towhee (heard) and Brown-headed Cowbird (seen and heard).

Along the south Ulao pond boardwalk we took another look at the screech owl.

Alex received reports of a Cackling Goose at Hawthorne and KK. This started a fun flooded field tour! No Cackling Goose nor much else was left at Hawthorne and KK (Stop 1), though Alex, Helen and others heard the sweet, spring song of an Eastern Meadowlark. From here we headed to three other flooded fields and each had spectacular sightings!

At Stop 2 we were scanning through nearly 200 Canada Geese when Greater White-Fronted Geese were spotted. They are awesome! All distinguishing features were present: White above bill, barring on chest, and orange legs.

Onto Stop 3, KK and H Ag Fields. Here we were greeted by more Canada Geese And 60 Tundra Swans! They are beautiful. We heard Horned Larks and one flew onto a grass tussock right in front of us.

Alex had one more field for us, Stop 4, Flooded Ag Fields. Scanning through more Canada Geese, a bright, white snow goose! And next to it a blue morph snow goose. We watched until they flew away. Very cool to see the blue morph and the white morph side by side.

Thanks Alex for the Flooded Farm Field Tour of ’23 and David for bringing a scope!

Follow-Ups:

Trivia Night to benefit Lakeshore State Park, Monday Mar 20 at City Lights Brewery from 5-8pm