Just around sunrise, six people joined the walk co-leaders Ly and Neill to listen to the dawn chorus on the edge of the woods at the 62^nd Avenue entrance to Everett Crowley Park. For about 20 minutes we listened to American Robins, Song Sparrows and a strident Spotted Towhee singing close by for all they were worth. Distant Swainson’s Thrushes could also be heard. By only 5:30 the intensity of song had diminished significantly. At this point Ly did an excellent land acknowledgement (see Vicky’s nature journal page below for details) and we signed in. We headed off into the woods in hopes of seeing some of the songsters.

As we headed west along a path we could hear a Willow Flycatcher. Eventually it was spotted and we got a fairly good view of the singing bird. Continuing on we came across a Pileated Woodpecker on a snag and once folks got on the bird we noticed a second one lower down on the dead tree. After moving on we came across a female singing Purple Finch. Purple Finch are interesting for North American birds in that the female sings at least as much as the male, though no doubt more research will find other North American female birds that sing beyond the ones we currently know.

Continuing on we came across a singing Red-eyed Vireo, a new bird for me in the park. Though we weren’t able to actually see the singer, we heard his song. A lot. We had been hearing Black-headed Grosbeaks singing since the beginning of our walk and then further along we came across one that everyone got to see. One of us had never actually seen one before (though they had heard them) and was quite excited to finally get a good look at one.

We returned to our starting point and talked about the highlights of the walk. For one of the group, the Black-headed Grosbeak was the highlight, while the Pileated Woodpeckers were the birds of the day for another. It was also mentioned that learning form others was the best part of the walk and I think for me I would have said that too.

We ended our morning with a list of 33 species which you can view here on eBird

Below is a journal page from Vicky Earle portraying the birds heard and seen in the first hour. How the songs ‘look’ visually, mnemonics, portraits of the birds themselves and when they sang are all there. Included is the land acknowledgement partly created by Dr. Ellie Parton. Thanks to Vicky for letting us use this image and to Ly for the land acknowledgement.