Chirps and Cheeps

Life has seriously been getting in the way of my birding, blogging, and photos! There's been so much going on - I need - I WANT a vacation! But here I am, grabbing a moment to try and catch up. I HAVE gotten out a bit in the last couple of weeks, but just not nearly as often nor as long as I would like.  I'm posting on 4/9 but am back-dating to the 31st of March.

On March 29th, I accompanied a large group of about 30 BOS folks on a field trip lead by Willie D'Anna.  Willie took us around the Lake Ontario Plain region looking for geese, waterfowl, and whatever might present itself.  I missed a few "goodies", like the Greater White-fronted Goose, a Common Loon, an Eastern Screech-Owl, and an Eastern Meadowlark, but I was very happy to see a Snowy Owl, male Surf Scoter, 3 Northern Shrikes, a Northern Harrier, Tundra Swans, and a blue-morph Snow Goose.

The very next day, I returned to Tifft Nature Preserve with two of my grandchildren to give them a chance to stretch their legs and enjoy the fresh snowfall before we all went to the new Muppets movie. What a fun day all for us all! Josh and Sam really enjoyed the friendly chickadees who ate the seeds we brought right from the kids' hands. There's nothing like it and it's so fun watching the thrill on the faces of young ones!

I caught up with the Eastern Towhee that I saw a few days earlier and we enjoyed looking at the different ducks. I was hoping the Osprey had returned so the kids could see them, but not yet... I saw my FOY Blue-winged Teal, a few Hooded Mergansers, some American Wigeon, and the usual mallards. Song Sparrows, chickadees, and robins were everywhere.