Birding Bonanza at Bennington

Migrants were everywhere at Bennington Lake on September 26.  The trees were full of ruby-crowned kinglets, Wilson's, orange-crowned, Townsend's, and yellow-rumped warblers, Cassin's and warbling vireos and Anna's hummingbirds. To top that off we saw 40 snow geese flying overhead, 3 great egrets in the canal and a northern goshawk flying over our heads.  The lake was covered with canada geese, white-fronted geese and hundreds of ducks.  I counted 56 species of birds this morning and probably missed some.  It was the best birding I've ever had at the lake!

 

 

Saturday Field Trip

Ten of us joined Tom Scribner for a fun outing to check on the bluebird boxes and install new ones along Jasper Mountain Road, and along several spurs off Payne Hollow Road.  There were still numerous western bluebirds on Jasper Mountain which is always nice to see.  As he cleaned out boxes, Tom explained to the group the difference in nesting materials of bluebirds, tree swallows and house wrens.  One or two of the boxes had unhatched eggs in them which is normal.  However, four of the nests had broods of young bluebirds in them.  They had their feathers and looked ready to fledge, but for some reason they died in the nest instead.  There were other interesting birds seen on the drive including large numbers of Savannah sparrows, a great horned owl, a sharp-shinned hawk, a white-breasted nuthatch and a hairy woodpecker.  We saw a total of 24 species.

Bennington Lake Townsend's Solitaire

What a difference a week makes.  Last week there were tons of ducks on the lake – this morning there was one horned grebe and two green-winged teals.  The skies were full of Vaux's swifts, barn swallows and a few violet green swallows. The south end of the lake was very quiet (we didn't even hear a song sparrow).  However as we walked toward the bench overlooking the lake, Sue spotted a Wilson's warbler and MerryLynn saw a Townsend's solitaire fly into a tree. That is our first solitaire for the fall. A Cooper's hawk flew out of the trees as we walked along the north shore of the lake.  Along the canal were several killdeer, two western sandpipers and a greater yellowlegs. 

Ducks galore at Bennington Lake

We counted 183 ducks on the water on Tuesday morning.  Most of them were mallards, with a few American wigeons, northern shovelers and northern pintail sprinkled in. It's really hard to tell ducks this time of year when they are all in eclipse plumage.  Bill size and shape is probably the easiest way to differentiate them, but that gets a little tricky if you aren't an expert on ducks (which I am not!) In a separate group were 14 western grebes.  We only birded the south end of the lake and it was pretty quiet.  A small flycatcher, probably a Hammond's, and a MacGillivray's warbler were the only migrants we saw.  It's another hot week in Walla Walla.  Where is our cool fall weather?  Ginger