Birding on Broadmeade Walk

Last Sunday morning, 11 folks met me at the Braes Valley parking lot of Lake Creek Trail for my monthly neighborhood bird walk. We enjoyed an absolutely beautiful morning on the trail and found over 30 species of birds. The most numerous songbirds were Cedar Waxwings, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and Northern Cardinals. Here are a female Yellow-rumped Warbler and a female Northern Cardinal, both photographed by the footbridge with the amazing morning light behind us:

On our way back from the footbridge someone pointed out the opaque berries of Chinaberry tree on the trail and remarked that berries from the exotic Chinaberry tree are opaque, but similar berries from the native Soapberry tree are partially translucent. I realized there were some Soapberry trees nearby and so  I took these photos to compare them.


Chinaberry tree berries:

Soapberry tree berries:

When we returned to the parking lot, we carpooled to the spot where the Eurasian Wigeon was seen a couple weeks ago. We didn't find it, but we were treated to very close views of an Osprey that landed right across the water from us:

And we found this "Storm Wigeon" among the American Wigeons. It's a term duck hunters use for American Wigeons with more white in their face. The "Storm Wigeon" is at the top. Compare it to the more common American Wigeon plumage on the bird in the middle. (And that's a Gadwall on the bottom.)

It sure was a fun morning! Since we birded two different locations, we recorded two eBird checklists. Here's the first and here's the second.