Mt. Misery Field Trip

On July 27, twenty people joined the Dennys for a trip to the high elevations of the Blue Mountains south of Pomeroy.  Our destination was Mt. Misery and along the way we passed through much of the area that was destroyed by the School House Fire in 2005.  Once into the undamaged standing forest we found a variety of firs, spruce and pine, along with many beautiful wildflowers.  We passed by many of the bluebird boxes Tom Scribner has placed on the highlands and I'm happy to report that it was a good year for nesting mountain bluebirds.  Two grasshopper sparrows sat on a wire fence next to the car and MerryLynn was able to get a great photo.  It can be seen on the Blue Mountain Audubon Facebook page.  Other photos from the trip are also on Facebook.  It was  nice to escape the heat that we have been having in Walla Walla, and it is always nice to be in the Blue Mountains.  Great field trip.  Thanks Mike and MerryLynn.

Bennington Lake

Even though we started at 7:00 this morning, the birds were quiet by 8:30 so we didn't see a lot.  Robins, western wood peewees, house wrens, goldfinches, a belted kingfisher, mallards and swallows were present and accounted for.  We heard warbling vireos, yellow warblers, quail and Bewick's wrens. A downy woodpecker was busy pecking at a rose gall and an eastern kingbird was on the wire on the lake road.  The best time to look for birds when it's hot is very early morning.  They don't like the heat anymore than we do so they hunker down and try to keep cool when the temperature creeps up above 80.

Bennington Lake this morning

We started at 7:00 to try to beat the heat this morning and it was nice for about half of the walk, but by the time we got to the east side the sun was beating down on us.  However, in spite of the heat we did see some nice birds.  There were three Caspian terns flying around the lake when we arrived along with lots of swallows.  We saw many baby birds today – killdeer, downy woodpecker, western kingbird, house wren, black-capped chickadee, yellow warbler, black-headed grosbeak, Bullock's oriole and house finch.  The black-chinned hummingbirds are still enjoying the feeder MerryLynn put up for them along the trail, and the adult kingfisher was busy catching fish for its young who were crying from the a hole in the bank.  There were three very noisy yellow-breasted chats along with the ever present sound of western wood peewees and willow flycatchers.

Just another day in the life of the birds at Bennington Lake!