Leaders: Albert Shultz & Rick Rockman
Sixteen chapter members enjoyed a beautiful spring morning on Saturday, May 17, 2025, for a leisurely birding walk around the Monastery grounds. Bird activity was fairly good, and we were rewarded with views and songs of many summer birds and a few lingering migrants. The new leaves of the cottonwoods kept Yellow Warblers and Warbling Vireos mostly hidden, but Bullock’s Orioles made a good appearance. Circling swallows put on a great airshow over the more open parts of the trail — and scope views of perched birds revealed a couple of Northern Rough-winged Swallows among the dozens of Violet-green Swallows. Western Wood-Pewees were numerous, but except for a very obliging Black Phoebe at the riverside, other flycatchers were scarce, perhaps not yet returned from the tropics. Red-winged Blackbirds and Great-tailed Grackles loudly dominated the cattail pond and marsh, and flyover Great Blue Herons and Pinyon Jays were a pleasant surprise. Near the end of the walk we spotted a pair of Northern House Wrens, busy tidying up a potential knothole nest cavity, unbothered by us onlookers. — Albert Shultz
Bird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S239502527