You can find Day 1’s post here.
Today we explored Palmyra Cove Nature Park for a little snow birding. Last night we ended up getting a few inches of snow and by mid-morning it already started melting! It seems like Palmyra got a little less snow than where I live, but it was nice to be out in the quiet of winter.
We were greeted by a number of songbirds right in the parking lot: a first-of-year Brown Creeper, White-throated Sparrows, a Northern Cardinal pair, a Tufted Titmouse, Dark-eyed Juncos, and a Downy Woodpecker. A female Bufflehead at the beaver pond was a pleasant surprise as hundreds of gulls flew overhead. We even saw a mink! We ended our walk with 4 Cedar Waxwings near the visitor center. Overall we observed 17 species.
Palmyra Cove Nature Park (17 species, 314 individuals)
- 9 Canada Geese
- 2 Mallards
- 1 Bufflehead
- 1 Mourning Dove
- 60 Ring-billed Gulls
- 150 Herring Gulls
- 1 Turkey Vulture
- 3 Downy Woodpeckers
- 1 Hairy Woodpecker
- 5 Tufted Titmice
- 2 White-breasted Nuthatches
- 1 Brown Creeper
- 3 Carolina Wrens
- 4 Cedar Waxwings
- 16 Dark-eyed Juncos
- 50 White-throated Sparrows
- 5 Northern Cardinals
We are halfway through the count weekend and Team BirdNation has observed 36 different bird species and 2,412 individuals. Other fun finds the last two days were a mink, deer, and a backhoe. Let’s see what the second half of the weekend will bring.
Have you participated in the first two days of the bird count? Share some species you saw in the comments below.
BirdNation 