Five of us put on our rain coats and walked around Bennington Lake this morning. It didn't rain the entire time, but we were all glad we had worn protective gear. The first bird we saw when we got to the parking lot was a Caspian Tern. Then we started seeing swallows over the lake. We counted 27 violet green swallows and 2 tree swallows. There is still very little water in the lake, but we did see two double-crested cormorants, five mallards and one fly-over canada goose. A pair of northern harriers were displaying and a great horned owl was calling as we walked down the canal. We saw two adult owls and heard a young one crying, but didn't find the nest. We saw 24 species total.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
March Audubon Field Trip
Mike and MerryLynn Denny led the March Field Trip to the west side of the county on March 17 in search of early migrants and wildflowers. The wind was howling but that didn't stop the group from walking around Hood Park where we found many yellow-rumped warblers, an orange-crowned warbler and a pair of black-capped chickadees setting up house in a nest box along the water. We saw a glaucous gull on the Walla Walla River Delta and set up scopes at Wallula Grain Terminal to get a lesson in how to tell the difference between lesser and greater scaup. The highlight was hiking the rocks in Wallula Gap where we found desert buttercups, shooting stars and prairie stars, lichen and several other plants emerging from winter's cold. Robins were everywhere, there were around 200 snow-geese and several hundred white-fronted geese on McNary NWR, and three great horned owls on nests. All in all, it was a great trip.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Northern harrier behavior
At Bennington Lake this morning there were a pair of northern harriers. The male put on quite a show with it displays – going straight up and then swooping down on the female. But that wasn't enough for this feisty bird. It also harassed a great horned owl and actually chased it from the far west side of the high trail to the high trail on the east side. Very interesting behavior and fun to watch. Spring is definitely in the air! Ginger
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