Cooper's hawks at Bennington Lake

Two juvenile Cooper's hawks spent the morning harassing all the little birds up and down the canal and out over the sunflower patches.  At one point they scared up flocks of house finches and goldfinches, a great horned owl and a flicker. 

 

Summer is definitely winding down at the lake.  A few yellow warblers, house wrens, gray catbirds, eastern kingbirds and western wood peewees remain, but many of the other summer birds have left.  We saw a nice variety of swallows and Vaux's swifts over the water.  At the parking lot was a molting yellow-rumped warbler – another sign of the change in the seasons.   Ginger

Birdy Bennington Lake

This was the day for babies – young fledglings everywhere – house wrens, yellow warblers, Bullock's orioles, black-headed grosbeaks, robins, rough-winged swallows, bank swallows.  We also had more shorebirds today – seven western sandpipers and three least sandpipers, a greater yellowlegs and a long-billed dowitcher.  A Caspian tern was circling the lake when we arrived at the parking lot.  We had high counts of house wrens (26), yellow warblers (36) and robins (36) and a total of 49 species for the day.  The best part of our morning walk was the fact that it was cloudy and cool!  It's been an unusual summer with no scorching hot mornings so far, and I would be happy if it stayed that way.  Ginger

Bennington Lake Today

We are beginning to see and hear young birds.  This morning we found young Bullock's orioles, yellow warblers and house wrens.  We also found a western wood peewee nest with mom sitting on eggs.  We had our first shorebird other than the killdeer and spotted sandpipers that nest at the lake.  It was a long-billed dowitcher.  Hopefully with the water level continuing to go down, we will see more shorebirds as they come back through.  We saw and/or heard 44 species today.  It was a very pleasant morning for walking – not too hot with a little breeze to help us keep cool.  Ginger

Bennington Lake today

You know summer has arrived when you go from shade to shade as you walk around the lake.  That's what we did today....

There wasn't anything new today, but it was very birdy. We saw a total of 44 species. The cliff swallows were noticeably absent.  We only saw one instead of 50, so they must be done nesting.  We did find a black-chinned hummingbird on a nest, which is always exciting, but we didn't see the calliope today.  There was one osprey, a double-crested cormorant and a great blue heron.  A pied-billed grebe was hiding in the logs along the east shore, and there were a few mallards and the canada goose family.  We got good looks at a very noisy yellow-breasted chat.  Another good day of birding!   Ginger

Bennington Lake this morning

It's the first day of summer and finally it looks like it!  The sun was shining, it was warm, there was no wind, and we didn't have to wade across the canal.

The birds seemed to be enjoying the warm weather as well.  We saw 46 species today including a Caspian tern, a golden eagle, our first house wren babies (still in a hole in a snag) and a young great horned owl just starting to get it's adult feathers, but mostly still downy fuzz.  No osprey today, but a great blue heron and a double-crested cormorant were having a slight argument over who got to sit on the osprey's snag in the southeast corner of the lake.  We were surprised to find three common mergansers enjoying the sun on a log. Each week now should bring more activity with young hatching and then fledging.  It's a good time to take a walk around the lake to see and hear the birds.  Ginger

Wildflower Field Trip

June 18 was Priscilla's wildflower trip to the Blue Mountains.  It was spitting rain when we left Walla Walla, and by the time we got to our first stop it was raining hard.  Also, the clouds were very low so there was heavy fog.  Many of the roads we hoped to visit are still under snow, so a lot of the plants are just beginning to show life.  After about an hour, most of us bailed and headed back to Walla Walla.  Priscilla, Laura Meier and Markie McCrae stuck it out.  They saw 50 wildflower species and 8 shrub species.

 

We will try again on July 9.  Hopefully by then we will be able to get up Summit Road, Coyote Ridge and Target Meadows.

 

It's been a strange spring, but today is the first day of summer so I am optimistic about our second trip.  Come and join the fun.  Ginger

Bennington Lake on Tuesday

The summer birds are very busy now at the lake.  One of the female orioles has decided that tinsel from the Christmas tree pile makes for very festive nest building material.  Yellow-breasted chats, western wood peewees, Bullock's orioles, yellow warblers, house wrens and eastern kingbirds were the most active and vocal birds on our walk.  Two osprey are still fishing the lake, but where are they nesting?  The concrete structure in the lake is jammed with cliff swallow nests and the northern rough-winged swallows are busy in the parking lot bank.  Tree swallows are using the nest boxes we put up a few years ago.  Gray catbirds twitter from the scrubs and one finally popped up so we could see it.  We saw a total of 42 species.