Northern Shrikes at Bennington Lake

We saw two northern shrikes on our walk this Tuesday morning.  One was having some sort of altercation with a kestrel and was very noisy.  There was also a merlin hunting finches in the sunflower patch.  On the water were buffleheads, common mergansers, green-winged teal, northern pintails, mallards and a western grebe.  In the mud we saw long-billed dowitchers, killdeer, ring-billed gulls and greater yellowlegs.   A belted kingfisher was patrolling the canal. There were a few Townsend's solitaires, lots of little winter songbirds, several red-shafted flickers and at least four downy woodpeckers.    Another good walk with  36 species seen.       Ginger