By Jake Bramante
In mid-April, eight of us gathered at the Herron Park parking lot of on a chilly, bluebird sky morning. It didn’t take very long to see actual Mountain Bluebirds and a host of forest birds that were singing in the trees. Mountain Chickadees serenaded us the entire day with their three note, minor melody.
While looking for birds, we stumbled across bluebells, yellowbells, a couple shooting stars, and a glacier lily, delighting us with early spring color! A Cooper’s Hawk made one call, letting us know it was there, and perched in a larch. One of our target birds, a Spotted Towhee, didn’t make an appearance until we climbed quite a bit, but we did see it!
On the south end of the trip, our first-of-year Ruby-crowned Kinglets sang and sang and sang, while a very cooperative White-breasted Nuthatch flew within 10 feet of us.
We finally heard the distinctive drum of a Williamson’s Sapsucker and spotted a few more bluebirds on our way back to the trailhead with a final list of 30 species!
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