First Ever Birding with Baby Walk!

     I'm really excited to share that yesterday, Saturday, I co-led with Kestrel our first Birding with Baby Walk with the Feminist Bird Club in Green-Wood Cemetery. There were 5 families of us all together, 5 babies, and 2 toddlers. I have birded solo with Kestrel, but never had I birded with other families with babies so, I really didn't know what to expect but I was ready for us to move slowly, expect the unexpected, and be patient.

    We started with a slow circle of the Sylvan water which gave us looks at cardinals, kinglets, a red-breasted nuthatch, hermit thrush, white-throated sparrow, even a flyover Turkey Vulture. By the end of our round of Sylvan we had a few diaper changes and feeds to tend to. So we birded the area nearby while some took a break. 

    A few decided to end the walk after an hour, which I shared that everyone can go at their own pace, stay as long or as short as one wants, making sure we could be flexible for all participants. A few of us stuck out for nearly three hours, we made it to the Dell Water and were rewarded with a number of birds there including gnatcatchers and a continuing worm-eating warbler. It was nice to chat with other parents and about their interest in getting outdoors with their littles. We also chatted a bit about how it's hard to join walks with babies because they are not always accessible, which is so true, especially if using a stroller.

    All in all, I logged 33 species for us, not too shabby!

    Long story short, I think it would be really fun to do this again and get more birding parents involved!

When leading walks, I take less photos because I'm talking to people and this day also just checking in on everyone making sure they were doing well.
So here is a double-crested cormorant on a well-used corner of the Sylvan Water.

While everyone was ogling a worm-eating warbler, a hermit thrush, normally quite shy, hung out, hidden, without any eyes on it.

I was not about to struggle with the crowd of 12 on-lookers struggling for the shot of the Worm-eating warbler but instead grabbed some of an obliging blue-grey gnatcatcher just behind the crabapple the WEWA was in.

So proud of my little baby bird, she was such a great sport during the walk and earned herself a good hard nap for the way home.