Bennington Lake

After rain, wind  and a closed gate kept us away, several of us finally walked Bennington Lake on Friday. The water is once again open and very low - raging Mill Creek is not being diverted into the lake at this time. There were 50 plus common mergansers on the lake and over 60 canada geese.  Both Bohemian and cedar waxwings were found in the junipers and we saw three great horned owls.  We were surprised at the lack of small birds since it was a sunny, fairly calm day.  A few Townsend's solitaires tooted from the trees and one northern shrike was seen in a far away tree.  Robin numbers were high and there were two great blue herons in the mud.  Hawks seen were red-tailed hawk, northern harrier and American kestrel.  Twenty three deer were munching on the new wheat in the fields east of the lake.  Ginger