Mud and Shorebirds at Bennington Lake

The Corp is starting another draw down of the lake this fall.  The timing is perfect for shorebird migration.  Today on our walk we already noticed the difference in the water level, and so did the shorebirds.  Besides the usual killdeer and spotted sandpipers we had a greater yellowlegs, a long-billed dowitcher and a solitary sandpiper.  As the banks get more mud, there should be more shorebirds so I would recommend checking it, especially the side down from the parking lot, in the coming weeks.

 

We saw lots of birds today including a pair of western tanagers feeding a young bird.  This is the first record we have of western tanagers nesting at the lake.  We didn't hear or see any Bullock's orioles or yellow-breasted chats today, but the rest of the summer birds are still around.

 

Evening is a good time to check out the birds at Bennington Lake because the sun is behind you so the light is better for identifying birds.   Ginger

Bennington Lake this morning

There were LOTS of birds on our walk this morning. Many young birds have fledged and are being generally very noisy.  We saw more birds today than in weeks past when we could hear them, but not always see them.  Some of the species that had young birds were American kestrel, black-headed grosbeak, gray catbird, black-chinned hummingbird, cedar waxwing, yellow warbler, eastern kingbird, chipping sparrow, downy woodpecker and great horned owl.  There are still swallows, Vaux's swifts, and one osprey flying above the water.  We saw one spotted sandpiper and a couple killdeer, a belted kingfisher, a great blue heron and two mallards along the bank.  A big river otter was also swimming around the lake.  There isn't much mud along the shoreline yet, so there weren't any migrating shorebirds.  We got out early so the heat wasn't too bad - all in all it was a very successful morning of birding.     Ginger