North Beach

My fifth and final bird-walk took place along the Burlington Bike Path and extended through North Beach and into Lone Rock. This walk took place on Thursday, April 14th between the hours 3:00-5:15pm. The first siting that I had was on the shoreline of North Beach where I saw a colony of Ring-billed Gulls, consisting of around twenty birds. A large majority of them walked into the water and swam due west. I then continued to the northern portion of the Beach, hitting the treeline and following it along into a small cove. While walking along the treeline, I head the distinct rattling call of a Belted Kingfisher. Shortly after I saw the bird that was emitting the call fly over the cove to an opposite treeline. In the cove itself, I saw eight Canada Geese. The majority of these geese were splashing the water with their wings and were in close proximity with two Mallard Ducks (one hen and one drake.) I observed these birds for approximately ten minutes and then headed into the woods along a trail. The next siting I had was a large Pileated Woodpecker. I first heard the slow drumming of the bird and then walked up onto it, excavating a large snag.

Following the trail, I was lead into a large open field where I saw a singular Song Sparrow. I was able to differentiate it from the House Sparrow by the dark striations on the chest and head. I continued to follow the trail along, which eventually wound around and lead me back to the North Beach area. At the northern tip of the beach, there is a rather large wetland, full of cattails on the periphery. There were many Red-winged Blackbirds, most of which I saw were males. Key characteristics I used for identification were the red band on their wing, square tail shape, and "checking" call. For the second time in the day, I heard the distinctive rattle of the Belted Kingfisher, however, this time it sounded like there were two birds. I then spotted both of them, on the opposite (east) side of the wetland, perched over the water on the tips of two separate branches. In an attempt to get a better look I headed to this side of wetland. Both of them eventually dove down and glided across the top of the water. One was slightly larger than the other which I hypothesize was the female (typically the female is larger in this species.) On this side of the wetland I also saw three female Common Mergansers together. They had gray bodies, long bills, and reddish/cinnamon colored heads with a crest on the back of them.

Posted on April 22, 2016 10:12 PM by jpleonar