American Golden-Plover at Green Pond! ~ April 27, 2024

I led a walk for the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society at the Martins Creek Nature Trail. There were 17 participants. We found a total of 54 species thanks to help from Stephen Kloiber and Guy de Bruyn. Here's the list.

1) Canada Geese
2) Wood Duck
3) Mallard
4) Common Merganser
5) Mourning Dove
6) Chimney Swift
7) Double-crested Cormorant
8) Great Blue Heron
9) Black Vulture
10) Turkey Vulture
11) Osprey
12) Sharp-shinned Hawk
13) Bald Eagle
14) Broad-winged Hawk
15) Red-tailed Hawk
16) Red-bellied Woodpecker
17) Downy Woodpecker
18) Pileated Woodpecker
19) Northern Flicker
20) Eastern Kingbird
21) White-eyed Vireo
22) Blue-headed Vireo
23) Warbling Vireo
24) Blue Jay
25) American Crow
26) Carolina/Black-capped Chickadee
27) Tufted Titmouse
28) Tree Swallow
29) Barn Swallow
30) Ruby-crowned Kinglet
31) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
32) House Wren
33) Carolina Wren
34) European Starling
35) Gray Catbird
36) Brown Thrasher
37) Eastern Bluebird
38) Wood Thrush
39) American Robin
40) Purple Finch
41) American Goldfinch
42) Chipping Sparrow
43) Field Sparrow
44) White-throated Sparrow
45) Song Sparrow
46) Eastern Towhee
47) Baltimore Oriole
48) Red-winged Blackbird
49) Brown-headed Cowbird
50) Common Yellowthroat
51) Yellow Warbler
52) Palm Warbler
53) Yellow-rumped Warbler
54) Northern Cardinal


Notables at the nearby Martins Creek boat launch area included 17 Black Vultures, a Bald Eagle, 2 Broad-winged Hawks, 3 Eastern Phoebes, a Common Raven, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and a Northern Parula.

Broad-winged Hawk

While we were there, we found out that Adam Miller had found a possible American Golden-Plover at Green Pond, so I headed down there. We studied the bird, noting that it had a dark cap, a broad white supercilium, small areas of golden spangling on the back and the rump, and wings that extended well beyond the tail.

American Golden-Plover

In flight, the dark tail and dark gray underwings also confirmed that it was an American Golden-Plover.

American Golden-Plover in flight.

Other notables there included 4 Pectoral Sandpipers, 4 Solitary Sandpipers, 2 Wilson's Snipe, one Spotted and one Least Sandpiper, one Greater and 2 Lesser Yellowlegs, an Osprey, an Eastern Kingbird, a Brown Thrasher, and a Savannah Sparrow. A group of 5 Killdeer were also seen facing off with each other.

Killdeer

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