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I made a short birding trip to the Arboretum today to see if anything new had moved into the area. Well, something new had moved in. I was treated to the sight of a half dozen tree swallows catching insects over Beech Spring Pond. It was fun to see that again, even if it was only a few. Soon there will be many of them, at the Arboretum and everywhere else in DC.
The rest of the birds were pretty much the same as last Sunday, with the addition of a great blue heron at Heart Pond. Unfortunately I missed the red-headed woodpecker this time; my guess is that it was still there, but uncooperative. I heard the pine warbler on Hickey Hill but not in the state tree area.
A small flotilla of hooded mergansers was on Heart Pond when I visited that location. They postured a bit with the mallards in the same pond, but for the most part, the two groups stayed separate. The mergansers very noticeably tried to stay on the opposite side of the pond from me. As I made my way around, they kept on the move away from me.
SPECIES SEEN: 32
Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Mallard
Hooded Merganser
Turkey Vulture
Red-shouldered Hawk
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Tree Swallow
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Carolina Wren
Northern Mockingbird
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue Jay
American Crow
European Starling
Pine Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
