Day 18.191: Parker River NWR birds [updated]

* Updated bird IDs below with many thanks to J!

Here are some of our bird sightings from our trip to Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday along with identifications of varying degrees of confidence. Comments welcome!

Song sparrow

Killdeer

Least terns

Least sandpipers*

Snowy egret

Snowy egret

Greater yellowlegs*

Least sandpiper

Common tern

Least sandpipers*

Least sandpiper

Short-billed dowitcher*

Common grackle (looking unimpressed)

Least tern (hunting)

These birds all suddenly flew up from the marsh beyond the pond where the tern was hunting. I was surprised to discover they were tree swallows

and even more surprised to see them perched like this when they settled back down

Gadwall and ducklings*

European starlings

 Greater yellowlegs*

Lovely view of both birds and legs

American black duck and wayward duckling

Mallards (maybe some American black ducks)*

Yellowlegs in flight (likely lesser)*

American goldfinch

Mute swan

Red-winged blackbird

Eastern kingbird

Northern mockingbird (on the same bare shrub as the kingbird)

Eastern towhee singing

Eastern towhee (have I been spotted?)

Eastern towhee (yes!)

Baltimore oriole

Baltimore oriole (I think I've been spotted again)

Baltimore oriole

American redstarts

American redstart (this is the young one)

Cedar waxwing (they were landing in these grasses but were slightly too heavy for them)

Osprey on a nest (very distant)

Cedar waxwing. Not a great photo, but I love the view of the tail stripe and the waxy wingtips

Snowy egret

Sanderlings*

Mute swan and "ugly ducklings"

Common eider

Common grackle

Yellow warbler

The next few pictures are of two birds - likely a young one and a parent. I would say they are empidonax flycatchers, by location J says willow flycatcher*. We had a lovely view of them.

Our last view was of a large flock of starlings which flew by us and came in to land in the trees by the road.

We were there for about four and a half hours and walked about five and a half miles on various short trails.