Birding on Broadmeade Walk

Eight folks joined me yesterday morning for the monthly group bird walk. We started on the Parmer Village end of the trail, and it sure did feel like summer as we waited for everyone to arrive by the pond, feeling both the direct sun and the reflection of its heat off the water. As we waited we watched male Red-winged Blackbirds vigorously defending their nesting territories in the tall grass around the pond. And shortly after we started this juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron flew in and landed on a dead cypress tree:

We ended up finding 36 species of birds, with two soaring Broad-winged Hawks being highlights. But I was surprised and delighted by the numbers and diversity of dragonflies we saw. Here's an incomplete list of species I'm remembering off the top of my head:

• Blue Dasher
• Eastern Pondhawk
• Roseate Skimmer
• Neon Skimmer
• Widow Skimmer
• Comanche Skimmer
• Common Whitetail
• Black Saddlebags
• Red Saddlebags
• Checkered Setwing
• Halloween Pennant
• Four-spotted Pennant

And here are a few of my favorite photos:

Here's our complete bird list. What a morning!