My favorite place to be outside in my city is a nature preserve with about 4 miles of trails. I have always loved walking there because it has very distinct areas: a walk along the creek, a pine forest, a marsh with a boardwalk over it, an open field where power lines cut through. It is always changing. Since beginning birding I love to note, particularly in the marsh, the different birds. I found my first swamp sparrow and red-winged blackbird there. I continue to learn about who lives in the different spots.

Activity 1: I most often bird in my suburban home, but I also sometimes visit nearby lakes. At home, I see more songbirds and species that like open areas (starlings, vultures, red shouldered hawk). By the lake, I see herons, ducks, and kingfishers.

Activity 1:

I often walk at a lakeside at the outskirts of Berlin and yesterday I spotted: a Heron, Mallards, Mandarin Ducks, Cormorants, Coots, Red-breasted Merganser, Mute Swans

In the woods surrounding the lake: Blue T, Great T, Marsh T, Robin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Chaffinch, Goldcrest, Nuthatch, Jay

Activity 1: A few weeks ago, I went birding in a field with an adjacent river and a nearby forest. I saw 4 American Crows fly overheard, saw a Red-tailed Hawk perched in a dead tree before flying away, saw 2 Black-capped Chickadees and a White-breasted Nuthatch in a tree, watched a Common Raven spin and dive, saw an American Goldfinch, heard a Dark-eyed Junco, and heard a Northern Mockingbird.

When I got home, I checked the woods behind my house for birds. I saw a Downy Woodpecker tapping a pine tree, 6 Tufted Titmice flying around, 3 Black-capped Chickadees, 2 Blue Jays, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, a Northern Cardinal, and heard an Eastern Bluebird.

 

Activity 2: I compared the two Arizona hotspots. Going off the birds seen this month, Agua Nueva Park has a lot of waterfowl, but also raptors, woodpeckers, and songbirds. This leads me to believe it has a good amount of water along with forested and scrubby areas. Mt. Lemmon seems to be a less frequented birding hotspot, but the birds seen this month are songbirds and a woodpecker. It is likely much more forested than the first hotspot and without enough water for swimming and wading birds. Looking at photos of the locations it seems my predictions about the habitat were right.

Activity 1: I normally birdwatch in a stand of trees between a river and a suburban area in a valley. For a change of habitat, I traveled 3 miles to the wooded top of a small mountain. I didn’t expect to see many birds in either setting today because the weather hasn’t been great, but I try to put these off indefinitely. In the woods I saw a Downey Woodpecker and a Hairy Woodpecker (I checked against the visual of the same setting and the sound of their calls), which I have seen recently among the trees of the river valley, and a White-Breasted Nuthatch, which I have seen among the trees of the river valley but not recently. I know there is a Hawk Watch spot near the woods on the mountain, but I didn’t go there because the steps seemed like a bad idea on such a wet and cold day. When the weather starts getting nicer I am going to have to check it out, we only really have Red Tailed Hawks here and I’d like to see what else shows up at the Hawk Watch.

Activity 2: I looked at the Arizona locations. The Agua Nueva Park had a significant number of water birds, and the Mt. Lemmon location had a number of birds better suited to trees and scrub. I took a look at the pictures of both locations, and was pleased to see I had read the habitats right.

Activity 1: Two Habitats.  Habitat 1: Cove on Long Island Sound. It is separated by an ecotone of sand and brushy habitat. The cove is affected by the tide rising and receding. At low tide there are wide open areas of mudflats. The water is briny/saltwater and draws a number of oceanic invertebrates. The Cove does not get rough or wavey. Surrounding the cove are tall rushes and grasses. Just beyond these grasses there are bushes and small trees. At the cove margin there are three nesting platforms, two of which are used annually by Osprey. Wildlife, other than birds, that is seen in and around the cove includes: fish, crabs, fisher, coyote, deer. On July 16, 2025 I observed 31 species of birds. The tide was low and mudflats were exposed. Birds that are seen IN the cove include: ducks, shorebirds, gulls, terns, cormorants, wading birds. On the cove margin’s brushy areas were flycatchers, finches, sparrows, warblers, mockingbirds and thrashers, and thrushes. ///// Habitat 2: Old growth and Second Growth Woods with some open areas that are overgrown. This area was once a family resort and traces of the resort remain with a few abandoned buildings, service roads that serve as trails, sports facilities such as tennis courts, basketball courts, shuffleboard courts that are now being overtaken by plant life. It is now a state park. A large parking lot that is also deteriorating borders the trailheads to the deep woods. Wildlife, other than birds, that is seen here includes: snakes, squirrels and chipmunks, and deer. Frequently seen flying over the area are raptors, geese and ducks that are flying toward the river that is nearby. On July 12, 2025 I observed 19 species of bird. In the mature forest were flycatchers, vireos, chickadees, nuthatches, and gnatcatchers. In the overgrown, brushy areas were: waxwings, sparrows, finches, cardinals, thrushes, finches, and wrens. /////  Differences: While the two habitats are very different from each other there are common birds that are seen at both. I call them the ‘border’ birds. These are the birds that like the bushy understory, thickets, low to the ground birds that eat insects, fruit, and seed. Such as the finches, wrens, sparrows, warblers, thrushes, thrashers, and flycatchers.

Below are two species seen at only one of the habitats discussed above. The Short-billed Dowitcher, a shorebird, will only be seen at the Cove when tide is low. It is seen late summer early fall.  It is unlikely that this bird would be seen at the old resort as there is apparent food source available. (Photo taken on 7/16/25) At the state park, a Blue-gray gnatcatcher is seen in the thickets there. It is not likely to be seen at the cove as it is too open, there are no deciduous woods and thickets close to cove. (Photo taken 7/12/25).

 





Activity 2: Compare Agua Nueva Park (formally Roger Road) to Mt. Lemmon in Arizona. I went to each hotspot to review the bird species for January through October 2025. I looked at the species listed, grouped them, and reviewed the typical habitats that these birds were found. I did NOT account for migration or times of the year that species were reported; nor did I consider vagrants. This was a gross review. ///// Hot Spot 1: Agua Nueva Park (Roger Road). This hotspot is in the Sonoran Desert and is a Water Reclamation Facility (elevation 2643 ft) that borders on the Santa Cruz River and nearby wetlands. Over all the years, 267 species of birds has been reported. In the first 10 months of 2025, 169 species were listed. The groups of birds were diverse and included: Falcons; Nuthatches and Creepers; Woodpeckers; Ducks; Rails, Coots, and Cranes; Loons and Grebes; Wading Birds; Tyrant Flycatchers; Vireos; Gnatcatchers and Kinglets; Wrens; Wood Warblers; Shorebirds; Thrush; Orioles and Blackbirds; Trogons and Kingfisher; Swallows; Cormorant; and Upland Game Birds. Habitats needed to support these groups include: Desert; Brushy wooded areas; Woodlands; Marshy Areas; Ponds. ///// Hot Spot 2: Mt. Lemmon is a mountain in the Santa Catalina Mountains (elevation 9159 ft) and is located in the Coronado National Forest. Mt. Lemmon had fewer reported species with 129 over all the years and 91 species for the first 10 months of 2025. Some of the same groups of birds found at Mt. Lemmon are similar to Agua Nueva Park. These similarities include: Falcons; Nuthatch and Creepers; Woodpeckers; Tyrant Flycatchers; Vireo; Gnatcatchers and Kinglets; Wrens; Wood Warblers; Thrush; and Upland Game Birds. Also included are: Swift; and Nightjars. Desert; Brushy wooded areas; Woodlands; Marshy Areas. /////  Hot Spot Differences: The most obvious species difference between Agua Nueva Park and Mt Lemmon is that birds that need water for swimming and wading only appear at Agua Nueva Park. They are not seen at Mt. Lemmon which suggests that water such as shallow lakes and ponds is not available at Mt. Lemmon. There may also be some within species differences. Such as the Rufous Hummingbird will choose Mt. Lemmon as it prefers open coniferous forests and riparian woods; while Broad-billed likes dry lowland riparian oak wood which is characteristic of Agua Nueva Park.

Ocean beach: we recently visited the ocean and I spent quite a bit of time watching the birds there. Unfortunately there weren’t a wide variety, but it was still fun to see the differences. There were crows being crows and seagulls picking through crab shells and other things that had washed up. I was interested to find that seagulls are mottled brown as juveniles rather than white. My favorite bird to watch were the weather sandpipers. They moved their heads so fast as they picked through the sand to find food, often hanging out at the edge of the water and flying to new places as a flock.

Backyard with evergreen trees: I love watching the birds in my backyard. We gets lots of dark eyes juncos, chickadees, red breasted nuthatches, and stellar jays. Earlier in the summer we also saw many spotted towhees, but I haven’t noticed any recently. I was excited today because I saw a new bird in my yard! At a glance I assumed it was a nuthatch because it was on the trunk of the tree rather than a branch, but I realized it wasn’t upside down and had a white underside. A quick online search told me it was a brown creeper. Such a cutie!

Last Saturday we went to a wetland park, which is about 20 minutes from where we live.  In the island in the middle of the lake, we were able to see four species of herons; there should be six of them, but we only saw four of them.  We also saw a common potoo up on a tree near the lake.  I liked seeing again the cocoi heron, which I had not seen for some time.  Then, on Sunday we went for our walk in the nearby park.  The park has areas that have trees, unfortunately not native ones, and other areas that are mainly small bushes and grass.  That day we were able to see 15 species of birds; I liked seeing the spectacle parakeet that I had not seen there before.  Then Merlin identified by sound at least six more species that we know are there but were not able to see that day.  We enjoyed listening to the song of the southern house wren.

Activity 2: Agua Nueva Park (was Roger Road WRF) and Mt. Lemmon Upper

My guesses only looking at the birds spotted within the past month:

• Roger Rd: Open grassy areas, tall trees possibly wires where birds can perch, forested area with trees close together with thick foliage next to the open area, light or no understory, pond or river


• Mt. Lemmon: Scrub areas, Tall trees with thick foliage, evergreens, thick understory

My observations on satellite and google reviews:

• Roger Rd: Open grassy area, tall trees spread far apart, ponds and marshy areas nearby, power lines running nearby


• Mt. Lemmon: Thick evergreen forest with mostly sparse understory but some areas where it’s thick, scrub areas, craggy rock mountainsides

Activity 1: I'm choosing the same park but two different habitats that exist right next to each other. It creates an interesting spread of species in a rather small area.

Habitat 1: A pond surrounded by tall shore grasses next to an open field

Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, Mallards, Mergansers, and Ruddy Ducks, Great Blue Herons, Green Herons, Common Yellowthroats, Barn Swallows, Belted Kingfishers, Canada Geese, Orchard Orioles (near the water in taller trees with dense foliage), Mourning Doves, Eastern Kingbirds

Habitat 2: A scrub habitat with tall land based grasses and short trees with large spaces in between right next to the pond.

Brown thrashers, Northern Mockingbirds, Prairie Warblers, Field Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

I go birding in Kleinstuck Nature Preserve. It is a fantastic place for birding because of the different habitats available for a wide range of birds. It's ecosystem includes upland woods, marshland, and shrub carr. I see lots of warblers, red-winged blackbirds, common grackles, grey catbirds, swamp and song sparrows in and at the outskirts of the marsh. I ground foragers such as white-throated sparrows, eastern towhees, and american robins. Higher up in the trees I usually see white-breasted nuthatches, woodpeckers, chickadees, kinglets, brown creepers, rose-breasted grosbeaks.

I'me going to Clark Lake Park (wetlands, forest, open field) and a marina. I will update after. Leaving this here as a note to self

San Francisco Mt Lake has an owl family with 2 owl babies. Many of the songbirds are similar to my backyard in Sacramento (2 hours inland) but the raptor we have js the Coopers Hawk, which sometimes drinks fresh water out of our bird or hides in a tree waiting on prey to appear.

Two places I often bird at are my house/neighborhood and my local park. My neighborhood is an urban environment with a small woodland area. It plays host to birds such as sparrows, finches, eastern bluebirds, chickadees, woodpeckers, and hawks. My local park has a wetland area, therefore I see more waterfowl there such as mallards, wood ducks, green-winged teals, pie-billed grebes, Canadian geese, and mute swans. It is clear that this difference in species is due to the type of habitat that best suits their food and shelter needs.

At La Salle park I saw hundreds of birds, including the Trumpeter Swans, ducks, geese, American Coots etc.   Then I went for a walk at a park near my house in the city and I only heard one bird the entire walk.

Activity 2: I compared the 2 locations outside London. Sevenoaks has more birds that are attracted to water (oystercatchers, gulls, ducks) there must be a body of water in the park. The Down house has more neighborhood birds or woodland birds. These are birds that can be found in my backyard or local park.

Activity 1: There are two main habitat types I visit. One is a scrub/forest type area and the other is a wetland. In the scrub/forest area, the birds I mainly find are woodpeckers, hummingbirds, warblers, jay, crows and ravens, finches, sparrows, and hawks. In the wetland, you will see cormorants, ducks, geese, herons and egrets, osprey and kingfishers, shorebirds, and grebes just to name a few. However, in the wetland areas I visit you can also see the birds of the scrub/forest areas as well because the wetlands have areas that are scrub/forest.

Very good

Activity 1

The two locations that I am using are my backyard and a local state park, Veto Lake.   We live in the country just across the road from a 4-H camp.  Since we have taken out a lot of the dead trees, our backyard to pretty open with an old apple tree in the middle.  There is a steep drop-off the leads down to Wolf Creek and the yard is fringed with trees and brush all the way down to the creek.  We regularyly see cardinals, robins, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice and White-breasted Nuthatches. When we had the dead trees we had a number of woodpeckers, but have not seen the Red-bellied Woodpecker who was a daily guest at the feeders for a week or two.  We currently have Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, at least 5-6 of them who are at the hummingbird feeder regularly.  We have also recently seen Eastern Wood Peewees, Flycatchers and hear Vireos.

Veto Lake is a stream-feed, man-made lake surrounded by fairly dense woods with a lot of debris on the floor.  We see Canada Geese and Blue Herons.  The last time we went, we saw a Lesser Flycatcher and in the woods, we are 90% sure we saw a Scarlet Tanager--it was a red bird with black wings.

There is a lot of crossover in both locations due to the deciduous woods, but the lake has more water fowl and the yard has more songbirds.

Activity 1: Today I went birding in a red pine forest. The forest contained some smaller birds in the canopy, such as the pine warbler; other birds were located on the side of the pine trees, such as the white-breasted nuthatch, the brown creeper, and the downy woodpecker; while other birds were in the understory, like the ovenbird, the gray catbird, and the house wren.

Another location that I like to visit is wetlands next to a lake. In that habitat red-winged blackbirds are in the cattails, barn swallows, tree swallows, and purple martins dive over the lake to eat bugs off of the top of the water. Mallard ducks are sometimes found dipping their heads under the water to eat small fish. The trees next to the swamp contain a large variety of birds including the house finch, the American goldfinch, and the Baltimore oriole. Robins frequently peck in the grass of the path with mourning doves. In the brush next to the wetlands, I often find gray catbirds and yellow warblers.

Activity 1:  I visited a beach and a marsh.   On the beach I saw Piping Plovers who nest and find food in the sand.  I also saw a Killdeer and Herring Gulls.  At the marsh, I saw a Snowy Egret, Glossy Ibis, a Willet, and a lot of Red-wing Blackbirds who were nesting there. 

I went on a bird walk sponsored by the Audubon Society at the Great Plains Nature Center last Saturday.  The trails at the Nature Center led us through woods, fields, and pond/creek habitats.  Beside the pond we saw an eastern phoebe in a tree, which our guide told us would build its nest under the bridges.  We also saw a mallard duck hen and her ducklings, great blue herons, and a great egret.  Flying over the fields we saw a bald eagle, a red-tailed hawk, and red-winged blackbirds.  In the more wooded areas near the fields we saw a red-eyed vireo, an indigo bunting, a flock of cedar waxwings, a cardinal, a Baltimore oriole, and a blue jay. Our guide also heard a yellow-breasted chat and a flycatcher, but I did not see them.

Activity 1: While some of the birds I saw at the Celery Fields in Sarasota (a mix of marshlands, ponds, and fields edged by trees) were the same as the ones I see in my backyard (mockingbirds, cardinals, woodpeckers, warblers), there were others not as common. In addition to being closer to the Gulf and having more water, it's also about 50 miles south of where I live so there are multiple differences in this habitat from my backyard. Many, many more wading birds and ducks in and near the water (even saw a least bittern which was exciting!) and lots of grackles and purple martins.

Activity 2 - Compared the 2 Arizona Hotspots - Roger Road and Mt. Lemmon.  Roger Road had more waterfowl and birds attracted to wetlands while Mt. Lemmon was home to birds whose habitat is woodlands.