7 degrees and overcast at the start

 Bird Highlight: pied-billed grebe, chipping and white-throated sparrow

Chipping sparrow

Botany Highlight: Siberian, white and Scotch elm, shepherd’s purse, field pennycress

Ulmus pumila (Siberian elm)

Species list: red-necked grebe, horned grebe, pied-billed grebe, double-crested cormorant, black-crowned heron, mute  swan, Canada  goose, mallard,  gadwall, greater scaup, lesser scaup,  bufflehead, long-tailed duck, red-breasted merganser, American coot,  killdeer, ring-billed gull, mourning dove, rock dove, common flicker, yellow-bellied sapsucker,tree swallow, barn swallow, American crow, black-capped chickadee,  brown creeper, northern mockingbird, American robin,  hermit thrush, golden-crowned kinglet, ruby-crowned kinglet, European starling,  yellow-rumped warbler, house sparrow, red-winged blackbird, common grackle,  brown-headed cowbird, northern cardinal, house finch,  American goldfinch, dark-eyed junco, chipping sparrow,white-throated sparrow, song sparrow.  (44 species))