Yesterday a couple of people were coming into town on a cruise ship and they had made arrangements for dad to take them out birding, but dad ended up having a call so I got to take them birding instead and he just drove us around.
We met them by the Library and then went out to Starrigavan. We got out there and dad let us off by the bird viewing platform then went and parked some place else. We walked out to the birding viewing platform and watched the birds that were out there for a bit. There were probably a couple hundred Green-winged teal, quite a few Northern shovelers, a few Semipalmated sandpiper, some Long-billed dowitchers, a Semipalmated plover, some Dunlins and a few Least sandpipers. After we watched the birds at the viewing platform for a bit we walked around the estuary board walk. We saw a Red-tailed hawk land in a tree and some Cackling geese fly over and heard an American robin, and heard a Lincoln’s sparrow singing. After got around the estuary trail we walked up the Forest and Muskeg trail. We heard more birds up there than we saw. We heard both Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned kinglets, I also got to see a Golden-crowed kinglet bathing. We heard Yellow-rumped and Townsend’s warblers singing, as well as a Hermit thrush. After we had walked the trail we went back and walked out onto beach a ways and looked at the birds out there. There were a lot of shorebirds and ducks out there. We saw Pectoral sandpipers and Black-bellied plovers, we also saw a female Hooded merganser, and I saw a Merlin fly over with a shorebird. After that we went to lunch.
After lunch they wanted to walk around town for the bit before they had to be back out to the ship so we went our separate ways they went into town and I went to the park. By the time I got to the park it a bit warm out. I walked out to the end and saw some Brants and other waterfowl. I walked up by the river and saw that there were some shorebirds up there so I sat there and watched them for a bit then I crossed the river and went over to wait for Rowan on the other side, because we were going to go look and see if the couple of shorebird that she didn’t have yet were still there. Grandpa called while I was waiting so I talked to him for a bit then when Rowan got there I handed the phone to Rowan since it was her birthday then we walked towards Back beach. We got one of the birds we were looking for at Back beach but the other one had flown over to the park, so we walked over to the park and got the other one then walked home.
