A Foggy Morning at Bennington Lake

MerryLynn, Priscilla and I walked around the lake this morning in a peaceful fog.  Twenty-five common mergansers and three green-winged teal floated in and out of the fog while a great blue heron sat on the beaver house.  A great horned owl looked down on us from the trail, a red-tailed hawk flew off from its perch as we walked by and a lone canada goose swam along the edge of the water.  Song birds could be heard from the brush.  The soft toot of a Townsend's solitaire let us know that it was in the treetop. 

 

Not all days are high count days at the lake.  This one was not, but the tranquility of the lake and the surrounding habitat made it a most enjoyable walk.    Ginger

Raptor Field Trip - January 23

It was rainy and cold early, but that didn't deter 15 hardy souls from going out to look for raptors.  We covered the usual roads - Frog Hollow, Fredrickson, Stateline, Sandpit and Byrnes.  Red-tailed hawks were very cooperative - we saw 61 of them.  We also saw 17 American kestrels, 9 northern harriers, one rough-legged hawk, one sharp-shinned hawk and one prairie falcon.  Owls were harder to find than usual, but we did see two great horned owls.

It was a good trip and nice to have four Walla Walla University students along.    Ginger

Owls at Bennington Lake

We found four long-eared owls and two great horned owls on our Tuesday morning walk this week.  The lake was full of waterfowl - 200 canada geese, 50 northern pintails, 32 mallards, 21 common mergansers and a green-winged teal.  Although the temperatures were in the 50's, the little birds were much harder to find because of the stiff wind that kept them hunkered down.  Fun to see the owls....  Ginger

Open Water at Bennington Lake

With overnight temperatures near 60 degrees, we anticipated some open water at Bennington Lake for our walk - and we weren't disappointed.  There is still some ice, but much of the lake is open.  The birds were happy too!  There were 24 common mergansers, a lone mallard and 20 some canada geese on the water.  More canada geese flew overhead making a total of 51 geese on or flying over the water.  A lone ring-billed gull also took a look.  The remained of the birds seen or heard were pretty much what has been mentioned in previous weeks.  There was one horned lark at the edge of the fields on the east side, and two American pipits flew over.   Hopefully the water will remain open and we will enjoy more waterfowl in the days to come.    Ginger

Bald Eagle at Bennington Lake today

We saw a beautiful adult bald eagle hunting low over the fields on our walk around the lake this morning. The weather was cold and the lake is still frozen with the exception of one small area.  A great blue heron was at the open water again this week.  We found three great horned owls today and saw two red-tailed hawks and two American kestrels.  Two ravens were making their funny croaking noise as they flew over and there was a northern shrike in the top of one of the trees.  Dark-eyed juncos and black-capped chickadees were plentiful, and a Bewick's wren and a ruby-crowned kinglet followed us as we walked along the trail.  As usual, there were lots of robins and several Townsend's solitaires.  Three common mergansers and a small flock of canada geese flew over looking for open water.  A few goldfinches, house finches, white-crowned sparrows and song sparrows flitted around in the trees.  Red-shafted flickers and black-billed magpies rounded out the morning's sightings.         Ginger