Birds Being Seen

During the past week I have received interesting bird reports from many of you.  Here are some of the birds seen:

 

Larry Duffield had a LEWIS'S WOODPECKER visit his yard on Seaman Road.  He also has WESTERN BLUEBIRDS nesting in boxes he has put up on his property.

 

Nancy Mitchell watched a flock of CEDAR WAXWINGS at the Whitman College Alumni House.

 

Pam Fisher continues to enjoy her nesting WESTERN SCREECH OWLS.

 

Diane Reed saw CEDAR WAXWINGS and a BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON at Lions Park in College Place.

 

Carolyn Corvino still has nesting COOPER'S HAWKS in one of her trees, despite the street being torn up.

 

Jim and Sue Parrish found three baby BARN OWLS on Berney Drive.

 

Rodger and I found WILLOW FLYCATCHERS and GRAY CATBIRDS on Seaman Road.

 

Mike and MerryLynn Denny found GREAT GRAY OWL chicks on Jasper Mountain.

 

Bennington Lake today

The weather was a mixed bag this morning – sun, then thunder and lightning, a little hail, a little rain, and then more sun.  The wind came roaring through with the storm, but that only lasted about ten minutes and the rest of the walk was pleasant.  We saw our first western wood peewee of the season, plus eastern and western kingbirds, Bullock's orioles, black-headed grosbeaks, yellow warblers, house wrens and more.  There were at least two very noisy gray catbirds, but they did a good job of hiding from us.  Along the canal we found an adult canada goose with four goslings.  The goslings were almost as big as the adult so we missed them earlier.  Two noisy osprey circled the lake continuously and were joined by northern rough-winged, cliff and tree swallows.  A pair of spotted sandpipers and two Vaux's swifts added to the mix.  It was nice to have all the birds singing, and even nicer to not have wind for the first time in weeks!  Ginger

Coppei Creek Field Trip

Twelve hardy souls met South Coppei Creek Road at 7:00 a.m. for a leisurely walk led by Joe Corvino. It was cold and windy, but the sun was out and the birds were singing. We saw yellow warblers, lazuli buntings, black-headed grosbeaks, western tanagers and several other birds.  We heard, but didn't see, veery, fox sparrow and warbling vireo. Our total species count for the day was 29.  No flycatchers yet, but they are sure to arrive any day now.  I would recommend walking the this road again in a couple weeks and I'm sure more birds will be in.  Ginger

Birds at Bennington Lake

We saw our first killdeer chick today on the dam.  There were quite a few ducks on the water - ring-necked ducks, buffleheads, gadwall, mallards and eared grebes.  Five osprey spent the morning flying around the lake.  One of them had a fish, but it never landed to eat it.  We were wondering if this is some sort of courting behavior.  Summer migrants today included Bullock's orioles, western tanagers, MacGillivray's warblers, lazuli buntings,a Wilson's warbler and one black-headed grosbeak.  Of course the house wrens and yellow warblers were there in good numbers, serenading us with their songs.  We heard a yellow-breasted chat, but couldn't locate it.

 

Over the weekend, a group from the Tri-Cities found a juvenile northern saw-whet owl along the trail.  We looked , but couldn't relocate it.  They also found a green-tailed towhee on Biscuit Ridge and lesser goldfinches new Tom Lamb's place.

 

The birds are trickling in, but there hasn't been a great influx of summer migrants.   Ginger

Bluebird Field Trip Results

We saw 67 MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS on our trip south of Pomeroy.  We checked out over 40 boxes and only two of them had not been used last year.  I'd say that is a very good indication that Tom's boxes are successful.  We also enjoyed seeing several VESPER SPARROWS and got to listen to their pretty song.  There were CHIPPING SPARROWS and HORNED LARKS all along the high open areas and many RED-TAILED HAWKS and NORTHERN HARRIERS. On the way home we saw GREAT HORNED OWL chicks and their parents in several locations.  Probably the most unexpected find was a ROCK WREN on a very small rock pile in an area that didn't look like rock wren habitat at all.  We saw a total of 37 species. In addition, we saw several early wildflowers - fields of grass widows and lomatium, a a few balsam root, yellow bells, prairie smoke and buttercups.   It was fun to be up on top of the world looking down into canyons and out over the horizon to Steptoe Butte, the Blues, and all the valleys to the west.  Ginger 

Summer Birds at Bennington Lake

Finally, the summer migrants are coming in.  New today were spotted sandpiper, calliope hummingbird, barn swallow, orange-crowned warbler, yellow warbler, Townsend's warbler, house wren and chipping sparrow.  There were lots of yellow-rumped warblers and several western kingbirds, both of which returned in late April.  One horned grebe in breeding plumage was on the water, and a turkey vulture flew over the parking lot.  There were many violet-green swallows and cliff swallows, plus a few tree swallows and northern rough-winged swallows.  One Townsend's solitaire was still hanging around as were many white-crowned sparrows and American goldfinches.  We had 43 total species today so species numbers are picking up.

 

On another note, several people reported lazuli buntings in their yards yesterday.  Cassin's finches and evening grosbeaks are still around town also.  Watch your backyards and you may be surprised what you find at your feeders this time of year.  Ginger

Hummingbirds are back!

Finally - the hummers are coming in.  I've had reports from several people and we had both rufous and calliope hummingbirds in our yard yesterday afternoon.  Get those feeders up if you haven't already because the little guys will be hungry and there aren't too many scrubs and perennials blooming yet.  Ginger