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