Townsend's solitaires have arrived

We saw three Townsend's solitaires on our walk this morning at Bennington Lake.  Other birds of note were 13 bufflehead, 2 belted kingfishers, a northern harrier, a sharp-shinned hawk  and a northern shrike.  It was a beautiful crisp sunny morning – much better than the fog last week. Total species seen today was 34.  Ginger

 

Bennington Lake Field Trip

Fifteen of us enjoyed a leisurely walk around the lake – taking in the beautiful fall colors and enjoying the birds.  We were very excited to find four snow geese on the lake.  They didn't stay long, but flew off over our heads.  The other great bird was a northern shrike – the first of the season at the lake.  Because Paul Treman carries his scope with him, everyone got nice looks at both species and several other species.  At the Audubon meeting on Thursday night, Tom promised that we would see at least 20 species.  The pressure was on, but in the end we saw 23 species and heard another two.  Returning to the parking lot, the trail was covered with leaves and the wind picked up, blowing leaves through the air. Several commented on the beauty and tranquility of a fall day, and agreed that Bennington Lake is one of the nicest places to enjoy nature at this special time of year. Ginger

Fog and Boulders at Bennington Lake today

The fog was like pea soup.  We could hear canada geese on the water, but we couldn't see them.  Finally, we found 75 of them along the south shore.  The little birds were very quiet in the fog, so we struggled to find them.  Then, we arrived at "Cayuse Falls" to find huge trucks dumping big boulders into the canal.  A nice man from the Corp of Engineers told us they are shoring up the canal there to make sure it doesn't erode.  The good news is that the work should be done before our Field Trip on Saturday.  Instead of retracing our tracks we took the high trail back to the parking lot and saw lots of sparrows and finches in the sunflower patch.  We also saw an immature sharp-shinned hawk that appeared to be posing for us in the top of a dead tree.  Doubtless, it was looking for its next meal, but we enjoyed the good view.  When we got back to the lake we could see the geese again and four western grebes.  There didn't appear to be any other waterfowl on the water.  Just another morning walk at Bennington Lake....you never know what you'll find. Ginger

Thrushes at Bennington Lake

We were rained out on Tuesday (although we did go up there and saw an osprey while we were sitting in our cars).  Today was much better.  The highlight was seeing two hermit thrushes and five varied thrushes along with about 20 robins. There were numerous waterfowl – shovelers, wigeons, mallards, gadwall, western grebes, green-winged teal and even a ruddy duck. The canal was filled with noisy white-crowned sparrows, song sparrows and American goldfinches.  Flickers were everywhere and downy woodpeckers popped up all along the trail.  Nice to see the birds out after the rain.  We heard a coyote singing, and then saw it running across the wheat fields.  Ginger

Bennington Lake - waterfowl and migrants

Our walk started out a little drippy with very few birds, but the rain quit and we ended up seeing a nice variety of birds.  Waterfowl included western grebes, ruddy ducks, mallards, American wigeons, northern shovelers and a lone pied-billed grebe.  A single Forster's tern hunted the lake, dipping and swirling over the water.  White-crowned sparrows were plentiful as they have been for a couple weeks, and they were joined by a golden-crowned sparrow.  We had a quick glimpse at three evening grosbeaks, but a Lincoln's sparrow sat on top of a shrub, giving us good looks.  There were two red-naped sapsuckers today, an orange-crowned warbler and a common yellowthroat.  Finally, at the parking lot we saw two Cassin's vireos.  We ended up with 35 species today – not bad considering the less than ideal weather.  Ginger