Tuesday, October 4, 2011

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

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