Birding at Picnic Point (FUN) - 25 February 2024

Chuck Henrikson and I greeted each other in the parking lot at 1:10.  Sandhill Cranes flew from the marsh to the lake (Their flight & calls recall Jonny Quest's pterodactyl, kind of). We posted a FUN lawn sign and my orange bike pennant near the kiosk, and Chuck staffed the kiosk while I used the FUN little red wagon to take the fire-making and hot chocolate making bins to Fire Circle 2.  

We welcomed a group of 30 at 1:32, described FLNP, LNP and FUN, and introduced Chuck. The sign-up sheet was sent around while Chuck coaxed everyone into a Jens Jensen full circle. I also distributed FUN binoculars to interested folks.

The birding group at the beginning of Picnic Point.

The group totaled 34 as we departed and headed east through the pedestrian baffle/entry. The path had areas with standing water but no deep puddles. Chuck led the group with many stops for water birds (two bald eagles on the thin ice of Willow Bay;  Canada geese, various gulls, mallards in the liquid water).

One participant noted a redtail hawk circling over the Waisman Center (impressive optics). Chuck demonstrated the Merlin Bird ID app from Cornell University, including calling up the calls of whitebreasted nuthatch and the cardinal. One of the Merlin calls for the cardinal is distinct from any I've ever heard a cardinal make around here.

Group photo at the end of the walk at Swimming Beach.

I noticed that a tree was in bloom (already!) with catkins but no showy petals, so possibly a maple of some sort (maybe red maple?) Chuck gradually led the group to the Swimming Beach;  I peeled off at Fire Circle 2 and helped Yara Al-Rayyan's younger brother start the fire (about 2:45). Chuck led some of the group to the fire, the partial group staying til about 3:30.

He compiled his bird list in a notebook, using his system of abbreviations (often, two letters + two letters). Yara's brothers drowned the fire around 3:45 and I stayed a bit to put un-used logs back under the log shed.

Report by Tom Zinnen, photos by Tom Zinnen and Chuck Henrikson.