Osprey at Bennington Lake

The osprey is back at Bennington Lake.  We saw it this morning on our weekly walk.  There is water in the lake now and there were a few mallards, wigeons and canada geese.  Tree swallows and a violet-green swallow were circling over the bench that overlooks the lake.  There was still a northern shrike and four Townsend's solitaires - I imagine they will be off to their nesting sights soon.  The birds were all singing today - even a ruby-crowned kinglet, and we watched a black-capped chickadee excavating a hole in a snag.  We saw a beautiful pair of kestrels, a pair of northern harriers and a rough-legged hawk.  Even though it was windy, the warm temperatures made for a very pleasant walk.  Every week should bring in more birds now - I love spring!   Ginger

Sandhill Crane Festival Field Trip

Thirteen of us traveled up to Othello for the crane festival on March 26.  On the way up we saw burrowing owls off Highway 12 and more on Highway 395 past Pasco. We saw over 2000 sandhill cranes throughout the day, mostly in the Scooteney Reservoir area and along Lower Crab Creek.  The other highlight of the trip was a leucistic robin on Coyan Road near Scooteney Reservoir.  It was a good trip up and fun to be at the festival again.  Hopefully it will continue for many years to come.    Ginger

Snow Geese

For those of you who may not know, there are several thousand snow geese at McNary NWR.  They are normally seen east of the headquarters either in the air or on the ponds that are further out to the east from the road that intersects the ponds.  If you haven't seen that many snow geese in flight, it's worth the trip over there to watch.  The skies in the area and the ponds are also full of canada geese (probably over 10,000) and several hundred white-fronted geese.  Ginger

Waterfowl at Bennington Lake

Finally, the waterfowl are coming in to the lake.  Today we saw 47 mallards, 2 green-winged teal, 14 northern pintails, 67 common mergansers, 2 canada geese and 3 white-fronted geese.  There were 2 great blue herons on the shore and 2 killdeer.  There were two evening grosbeaks north of "Cayuse Falls" in the cottonwoods. Nothing else out of the ordinary to report.  The Townsend's solitaires are still there and so is one northern shrike.

 

It was actually a pleasant walk this morning.  After the strong winds and all the rain yesterday, it was a pleasant surprise to have very little wind and even a little sunshine peaking through the clouds.      Ginger