Weekly Report - 2017-01-12 - First Report of 2018!

We are back in 2018 with our first weekly report of the season! Due to last week's wintry weather, I wasn't able to get out on the nature trail even once. It was a shame to miss a week of data collection, but the snowy conditions precipitated on my parade last Thursday and Friday!

I made up for the lack of visiting from the previous week with three visits during this week! First, I went on my weekly morning walk on Wednesday morning. Second, we had our Trailblazers Animal Tracks event after school on Thursday. Finally, we had the 5th Annual Trailblazers Christmas Bird Count on Saturday!

Notable highlights from the week included two male Eastern Towhees foraging at the end of the trail to Deer Meadow Lane. They were feeding at the base of a few ornamental shrubs on the edge of the trail. I haven't seen them do that before, let alone be so out in the open! There was one Northern Mockingbird seen in the shrubbery across from the meadow along the main trail. I remember finding one on a nest in this location last year, and I wonder if it's the same individual. One Red-tailed Hawk was observed on the eastern edge of campus as it took off from its nearby perch during the Christmas Bird Count.

A non-bird highlight this week included a Red Fox seen in the meadow on the nature trail!

We tallied a combined total of 27 species in the three outings. The species total is good for this time of year, but I am more excited by the 30+ participants we had out exploring the trail with all of the events this past week.

27 species seen this week:

Canada Goose

Black Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Red-tailed Hawk

Rock Pigeon

Mourning Dove

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Blue Jay

American Crow