My birdwatching experience

小树苗

　　It was a Sunday morning, leaves shatters in the gloomy sky. A few chickadee chirps echoed in the hollow forest. Today I am going birding with my friend Katie and my science teacher, an excellent Ornithologist, Mrs. Stanbury (Strawberry).

　　We met at Tifft Nature Preserve at 7:30 am, above the cloudy sky, Mrs. Strawberry quickly spotted a turkey vulture flying above the marshes which I always thought was a hawk due to the similar shapes their wings look. An easy way to avoid that is turkey vulture flapped its wings less often than a hawk and turkey vulture also has an easy-to-identify red crest. As we walk further into the forest, we saw a dam built by beavers floating by our path and a tree with perfectly horizontal holes made by woodpeckers. We’ve continued walking until a large piece of open marshes. As we quickly picked up our binoculars, Mrs. Strawberry told us she identify birds normally by listening; talking along, she gave us an example of a northern flicker piercing like kwikwikwi… I was surprised that listening to bird songs really makes me heard a lot of bird. Mrs Strawberry also told us sometimes she go birdwatching with other old and experienced birdwatchers, while the birdwatchers' sharp eye can see lots of birds, Mrs Strawberry helps them hear bird songs to help them identify birds easier.

Holes made by woodpeckers, woodpeckers first made these holes, then the trees produce sap which will attract ants to come, finally the woodpecker eats the ant.

Turkey vulture 红头美洲鹫 (cited from the internet)

Northern flicker 北扑翅䴕 (cited from the internet)

As already passed for thirty minutes, we are still looking at the Canada geese “grooming” feathers and some mallard ducks dabbling for some mosses. Suddenly, Mrs. Strawberry became quiet and listened carefully. “I think I’ve heard a marsh wren,” She said. But since they are hard to find, we still need to keep our eyes sharp. Along the way, we also heard some angry downy woodpeckers and annoying European starling which steal eastern bluebirds’ nest that led to the decline population of the species. During the walk, the rain started dripping down from the sky and the wind blew harder.

Canada goose 加拿大鹅（不是羽绒服！！！）

Canada goose migrating 正在迁徙前往南方的加拿大鹅

mallard duck 俗称绿头鸭 (cited from the internet)

marsh wren 长嘴沼泽鹪鹩 (cited from the internet)

downy woodpecker 绒啄木鸟 (cited from the internet)

european starling 紫翅椋鸟 (cited from the internet)

　　We quickly hid into the dry forest while Katie clutched my clothes together tightly. Rain ends, we went back and spotted a duck that doesn’t resemble a mallard duck. As I was confused, Mrs. Strawberry told us it was a green-winged teal due to its small size. We spotted a few other geese, two killdeer, which is a type of sandpiper. Time flew by, it already passed half passed eight, our last finding ended up being a rare belted kingfisher, trying to find its prey for breakfast.

green-winged teal 绿翅鸭 (cited from the internet)

killdeer 双领鸻

belted kingfisher 束带翠鸟 (cited from the internet)

Mrs Strawberry said 😅

Beautiful snail found on a plant

"fresh cut" from a beaver

　　Me, Katie, and Mrs. Strawberry really had a fun time birding together. Speaking of breakfast, we munched the last bit of our bento made by Katie, ending the wonderful experience on a fall, Sunday morning.

A grand photom of Mrs Strawberry，my mom，my sister ，Katie, and me (my dad was taking the picture so he's not in the photo)

At last, I need to give credit to pictures in google that I cited, including e bird and other excellent recources, thank all of you very much!