Amsterdam Bird Walk

Winterberry Holly. I love this stuff!

Yesterday Becky and I attended the year's final bird walk in Amsterdam, from the boat launch near the boccie club to the band shell on the other side of the Gateway Overlook Bridge. The walk was led by George Steel, an area naturalist and educator.

Common Merganser spotted by a sharp-eyed young man on the walk

I love these walks, as I learn something every single time, and get to see great birds that I would almost certainly miss without expert guidance. Even Becky, who is pretty casual about birding, had a lot of fun. Sad to see the series end for the year, but bad weather is hard upon us and walking will soon be enough of a challenge all by itself.

Bald Eagle flyover. Excuse the awful photo

High point birds on a gloomy, humid, grey sort of morning were a Bald Eagle that flew over quite low and a Merlin (!!!) which I dismissed as just another pigeon but our leader recognized as a really cool falcon. 

Ephrata Rural Cemetery

I hope these walks resume in the spring and highly recommend coming along, no matter what the level of your birding experience.

On a kind of a funny side note a photographer from the paper that publishes the Farm Side showed up to take some photos of us. As I peered upward through my binoculars I tried really hard to avoid a certain classic birder pose and kept my mouth shut. I hope. 

The grebe

Other birding adventures later in the day, as we took advantage of what may have been the last nice day of fine fall colors for 2017, included not one, but two neck banded Canada Geese at Bowmaker Pond. I sent them in of course...plus a Pied-billed Grebe in the same body of water. Liz thought she saw one there last spring and we took a hurried trip over then, but no luck. This little guy was comfortably hanging around with the Canadas and gave us a good look and some pretty sorry photos.

Also spotted fourteen Eastern Meadowlarks in one flock! I have never seen more than a couple at once. They have been noticeable by their absence in recent years, but we have seen almost a normal number this year. Good stuff!

Riverbank grapes....