Tricolored Blackbird

We have had a female Tricolored Blackbird visiting our garden for a few days - just shows up off and on with the dozens of Red-winged Blackbirds.MerryLynn

Solitary Sandpipers and more

Good numbers of shorebirds are currently south of Lowden on Detour road inflooded pastures. This morning there were 2 Solitary Sandpipers, 4 LesserYellowlegs, 4 Greater Yellowlegs, 4 Wilson's Phalarope's, 3 AmericanAvocets, 8 Black-necked Stilts, 12 Killdeer and several winnowing Wilson'sSnipes. There are also many Yellow-headed Blackbirds among the Red-wings andBrewer's.MerryLynn

Bennington Lake

MerryLynn and I walked Bennington Lake on a cold windy morning on April 29.  The weather was less than ideal, but the birding was outstanding!  There were 8 black-necked stilts, 2 greater yellowlegs, and a Wilson's phalarope on the west side peninsula.  New spring migrants included 7 orange crowned warblers, 4 Nashville warblers, 3 yellow warblers, 10 western kingbirds, 6 Hammond's flycatchers, 1 dusky flycatcher, 3 Brewer's sparrows, a chipping sparrow, a Savannah sparrow, 4 house wrens, 3 Vaux's swifts, and a barn swallow.  Waterfowl included bufflehead, gadwall, mallard, redhead, ring-necked duck, shoveler, lesser scaup, cinnamon teal, canada geese with goslings, and coots.  We had a total of 59 species for the morning.  On the way home there were bank swallows in the cut on Berney Drive.

Ginger

Lesser Goldfinch

We had a lesser goldfinch at our niger feeders this evening.  This is the third year in a row that we have had one visit in the spring.  The yard is full of birds - including both a male and female rufous hummingbird and a golden-crowned sparrow.  I love spring!

Ginger

Western Kingbirds

We birded the west end of the county today and found some new birds for the year. Nice to see Western Kingbirds back around Touchet. Lots of American Avocets and Black-necked Stilts at the Walla Walla River delta and overlook pond. House Wrens were back singing and there were Bonaparte's Gulls flying around Two Rivers HMU.
Mike and MerryLynn Denny

Cassin's finches

We have 9 Cassin's finches in our back yard this afternoon. I have received messages from several other people around town that are also seeing them in their yards. There are also lots of pine siskins with the goldfinches and over 50 white-crowned sparrows. House Wren

Harris's Sparrow

The Harris's Sparrow is still hanging around. He is very unpredictable and seems really skittish. We seem him every couple of days. It would be great if they nested around here. George

Lincoln's Sparrow

There is still a Lincoln's Sparrow in our yard this morning along with dozens of goldfinches, redwings and whitecrowns. And our Mallard pair back under the blue spruce for our wierdest feeder birds of the year.
ML

Bennington lake

On April 23 there was an Eurasian wigeon on Bennington Lake.  Other waterfowl included bufflehead, lesser scaup, northern shoveler, American wigeon, ring-necked duck, coot, cinnamon teal, green-winged teal, canada geese and mallards.  There was a Lincoln's sparrow at the north end of the lake.  The tree swallows are building nests in all of the boxes around the lake.

 

House Wren