Carden Alvar Trip

[Bluffs Birder]

On a last minute decision, Terry Whittam, Betty McCulloch and I headed for the Carden Alvar area early this morning for some birding.  Although some birds have yet to arrive on territory we did manage to tally up a total of 66 species between visits to Prospect Road and Wylie Road.  Some of the highlights included;

Blue-winged Teal
American Bittern
Virginia Rail
Sora
Upland Sandpiper
Wilson's Snipe
Common Raven
Marsh Wren
Eastern Bluebird
Northern Waterthrush
Eastern Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow
Bobolink
Eastern Meadowlark

Shrikes?  Not today.

Walter

[paul_reeves]

You guys saw more than I did. I only saw 37 species and only heard the Sandhill Cranes.

Nice seeing you guys there today.

[Bluffs Birder]

Hey Paul,

Great seeing you at Carden as well.

Sorry I forgot to state that all bird were not 'seen', some were in the 'heard only' column.  The American Bittern, Sora and Upland Sandpiper were not seen but their calls were clearly heard several times for example.  Just hearing the unique calls of the birds at Carden makes the trip well worth the drive.

Walter