Birding on Broadmeade Walk

Only five people joined me for the monthly group walk on Sunday morning. We enjoyed a humid but breezy morning, finding 35 species of birds in about three hours. Here are a few highlights. Many of the birds we saw looked messy and unkempt because they are currently molting. Here's a Northern Cardinal missing some of its crest feathers. (That didn't stop him from singing!)

At the footbridge we saw this juvenile European Starling that was a little more challenged than normal. Somehow it had broken off the tip of its bill!

Over the soccer fields I was happy to see the continuing communal Purple Martin roost. I estimated there were 600 Purple Martins dispersing as we watched. Here are a few:

Overcast skies made for cooler temperatures but also noisier photos. Here's my best photo of the morning, of a tiny butterfly called a Least Skipper on a flower called Frog Fruit:

Other insects we observed included many dragonflies and a few robber flies. The dragonfly species included Blue Dasher, Neon Skimmer, Comanche Skimmer, Red Saddlebags, Eastern Pondhawk, Roseate Skimmer, and this female Gray-waisted Skimmer:

Here's our complete eBird list.

And here are a few more photos on Flickr.