The Pipits: March 20 2022, Sudden Tract, Cambridge 21 Mar 2022 10:11 AM Colleen Reilly (Administrator) Hello Pipits!
This past Sunday, a group of 10 Pipits attended at Sudden Tract near Cambridge. In the lead was our friend, the incredibly knowledgeable naturalist, Chris Cheatle. Our goal was to find salamanders, early spring migrants, and see if any flowers were coming up.
The day began with quite crisp temperatures, and was overcast and wet. Not so promising for finding cold blooded amphibians. But over the time we were out blue skies did appear, and the sun even came out!
It was wonderful to see our group of mostly adults reveling in the search for little critters under logs... at first it was Chris alone turning these over ... but before long everyone was spread out around the vernal ponds along our route. And every so often someone would call out "I found one!". Well done everyone!
We found a number of Eastern Red Backed Salamanders, as well as a pocket of eggs under a log - that we thought might be salamander eggs - but iNaturalist tells me are slug eggs. Not as awesome as salamander eggs, but still pretty interesting!
We also noted that Skunk Cabbage were flowering! Birds were singing! It's SPRING!!
As we were walking out of the trail, Chris and I heard a woodpecker tapping away. With a slow pace. Whaaat?? We had had fleeting views of a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers when we first walked into the trail. And now, the remaining few of us still on the trail, were treated to a long lasting view of a male Pileated Woodpecker working at a hole in a dead tree. Fabulous! Here is a photo taken by our youngest Pipit member. Looks great Nathan!
Many thanks to Chris for leading a fantastic outing, as per usual!
Thanks out also to Angelique for keeping the eBird list!
And thank you to everyone for coming out and making this a fun and interesting trip! You're awesome!
See the eBird trip report here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S105306829
iNaturalist records from the trip are shown below.
Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/3K7JfxYzMp5vXbtQ9
Until next time, good birding!
Colleen
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