Black-headed grosbeaks at Bennington Lake

The first thing I heard when I got out of the car this morning at the lake for our Tuesday walk was a black-headed grosbeak.  It didn't take me very long to find it up in the treetop happily singing away. We heard three others on our walk, but only got a look at a couple of them.  There were lazuli buntings singing and posing nicely on dead branches in several places, and the Bullock's orioles were very noisy and visible.  I like it when I get to see the birds!  And today even the yellow warblers were easy to spot.  We got a good, but brief look at at Wilson's warbler and a very brief, not good look at a MacGillivrary's warbler.  Calliope hummingbirds were on their usual perches and the male black-chinned hummingbirds were doing their buzzy display sounds.  The young great horned owls have found shelter away from the bank in the parking lot.  We didn't see them today, but we did see one of the adults so know they were close by.  We watched the osprey catch a fish and a great blue heron had a stare down with us as we passed on the trail.  We got a brief view of an eastern kingbird and saw several western kingbirds.  It was a beautiful morning – almost hot in the sunny stretches of the trail; but the best part of the walk was not having to wade across the canal!