Spring Migration Count May 4 and 5 2018
Jo Osterhouse and Martin MacRoberts surveyed the bird population along Trigg road from just south of Mosquero to the south end of Trigg Ranch. We covered the roughly 20 miles in 9.5 hours with 4 hours being on foot.
There had been no appreciable rain in this area since last October.
Birds of special note are:
The first time we had seen (actually heard) an Eastern Meadowlark although we had long expected this. The bird sang and we were able to play recordings of both Eastern and Western to ascertain that this indeed was an Eastern.
A Northern Cardinal was heard calling a number of times and was identified by listening to recordings of this species. The ranch owners said that they had recently seen this species in the area. This species had been previously seen by Osterhouse and MacRoberts.
The Common Black Hawks and Scissor -tailed Flycatchers are back in the area.
Birds expected and missed
We did not see any Vermillion Flycatcher, Red-headed Woodpecker, or Mississippi Kite, or Eastern Phoebe.