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Hi Everyone; In Bonnie Carmichael's absence, I had the pleasure of leading the Bird Society's monthly Beginning Birders' Walk today. We started by studying the Double-crested Cormorants at Black Rock Beach and I was able to point out the young ones with their mottled grey plumage on their chests. This was a good time to show participants the fledged young of different species, since they were almost everywhere. We watched a young Crow continually beg its mother for food while she patiently tried to show her offspring how to get food for himself. He paid no attention; just kept crying for food. She finally relented and fed him, then went back to showing him how she got the food. I'm saying "him" by default. The young one could have been a "her". We went in search of the resident Pileated Woodpecker. We found a Flicker first and watched it for awhile and listened to its call. We then heard the Pileated calling from behind us and were able to distinguosh the difference in voice and pitch between these two similar calls. We went down another path to try and get a glimpse of it, but no luck. We did get close looks at a Hairy Woodpecker, though. We also heard a Catbird calling and one participant said it sounded just like the "miaow" of a cat. We weren't able to see that one either. We did see, briefly, a Northern Mockingbird and a Common Yellowthroat. The trip ended at 11:00am but one participant came with me to Francklyn Street to look for a Cardinal. We didn't find it but we were treated to the calls of a Sharp-shinned Hawk hunting in someone's backyard. As a final treat I took Guan, the last participant, to Oakland Road and showed her an immature House Finch. We were both delighted with our last treat of the day. It brought our tally to 22 species. Cheers; Suzanne Borkowski
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