Field Trip to McNary Wildlife Natural Area

Paul and Judy Treman led nine of us on a great field trip today. Despite a cold wind, we saw many nice birds including bald eagles, black-crowned night herons, wood ducks, a horned grebe and an assortment of other ducks at the wildlife area.  We stopped at the Walla Walla Grain Terminal on the way home.  There were thousands of ducks there, but windy conditions made it difficult to spend much time looking at them.  However, we were able to get looks at canvasbacks, redheads, scaup, western grebes and of course coots. We saw a total of 41 species.  Ginger

 

 

 

Four Swans and a Singing Northern Shrike

When we first drove up to the parking lot at Bennington Lake this morning, there were four TUNDRA SWANS on the water along with 11 COMMON MERGANSERS and 5 MALLARDS.  On the south end of the lake we were serenaded by the sweet song of a NORTHERN SHRIKE.  Who knew that this bird that has been nicknamed the "butcher bird" because of it's tendency to impale its dinner on a barbed wire fence, would have such a beautiful song!  We also saw five NORTHERN HARRIERS swooping over a wheat field on the east side and ended the day watching a LONG EARED OWL along the trail.  BEWICK'S WRENS and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS were singing, and a pair of AMERICAN KESTRELS posed for us from the top of a tree.  It was breezy, but the sun came out to help us warm up and enjoy the walk.   Ginger

Mill Creek/Rooks Park Field Trip

Nine of us walked up Mill Creek from the Project Office to Rooks Park, to see what birds might be out on this cold, foggy morning.  We weren't disappointed.  There were hooded mergansers and common mergansers on the creek along with canada geese, mallards and American wigeons.  A great blue heron gave us regal poses from his perch on a rock in the middle of the creek, and we even saw a mink catch a fish!

We saw three brown creepers, a varied thrush, ruby-crowned kinglets, a spotted towhee, a belted kingfisher, black-capped chickadees and the usual song sparrows, juncos, white-crowned sparrows and Bewick's wrens.  We saw 25 species on our walk, and added a few more species in route. Ginger

Bennington Lake Today

It was very cold,but sunny – a beautiful morning for a walk around the lake.  Birds were pretty scarce when we first started our walk, but as the sun warmed the air a little, the birds began to appear.  A special treat today was seeing a barn owl.  It flushed as we walked by it and was immediately chased off by a Cooper's hawk.  Other raptors seen were red-tailed hawks, northern harriers and American kestrels. We also saw 2 great horned owls, 3 Townsend's solitaires and 2 northern shrikes.  One of the shrikes was having a "beak to beak" confrontation with a robin in the top of a tree over the trail.  Happy little black-capped chickadees flitted in and out of the trees while Bewick's wrens buzzed at us from the shrubs. There were many dark-eyed juncos and white-crowned sparrows as well as a few song sparrows, ruby-crowned kinglets, house finches and goldfinches. Northern flickers and downy woodpeckers were busy working the trees and robins were scattered throughout the area.  Ten canada geese flew over, but flew off again when they discovered the lake was frozen.  MerryLynn watched about 50 Bohemian waxwings fly over her car as she left the parking lot. Twenty-two deer and a singing coyote put the topping on a another great morning at the lake.  Ginger 

Pre-Count Field Trip

Mike Denny led a field trip to various areas in the Christmas Bird Count Circle on December 8.  We visited Bennington Lake, the Airport, Biscuit Ridge Road, Five Points, Evans Road and several spots in Walla Walla and College Place.  The highlight of the day was a northern pygmy owl.  It was a life bird for several of the people on the trip, which always makes it a special event.  Other highlights were a large flock of common redpolls, a northern shrike, and several white sacks at the airport that we hoped were snowy owls, but weren't!  It was a good trip and nice to acquaint the group with the areas in the circle.  We even had a little snow at Five Points!  Looking forward to the Christmas Count next weekend.

Ginger

Northern Harrier With an Attitude

As we walked around Bennington Lake this morning, we noticed a red-tailed hawk sitting in the top of a pine tree.  Soon a female northern harrier started dive bombing the red-tail.  Not only was she diving at the bird, she was also screaming for it to leave.  This went on for several minutes before the red-tail took off – with the harrier in hot pursuit!  There were two northern shrikes today on our walk and two Townsend's solitaires, plus all the usual winter birds.  While on the east side of the lake we flushed about 35 California quail – that woke us up!  The lake was pretty quiet – 13 common mergansers, 5 green-winged teal, 3 mallards, 2 killdeer and a solitary ring-billed gull. There was a winter bite to the air this morning – it feels like snow!  Ginger

Evening Grosbeaks at Bennington Lake

There were over 30 evening grosbeaks in the trees above the parking lot this morning when we got to the lake for our weekly walk.  They were in the conifers and also in the Russian olives.  Robins and juncos were around in huge numbers as well as numerous song sparrows and white-crowned sparrows.  Other birds of note were 3 varied thrushes, a meadowlark, 4 Townsend's solitaires, an American pipit and a great horned owl. In addition to the usual red-tailed hawks, northern harriers and American kestrels, there was also a rough-legged hawk and a Cooper's hawk. A feeding flock of little birds along the trail near the parking lot included mountain and black-capped chickadees, ruby-crowned kinglets, Bewick's wrens, juncos and a spotted towhee.  On the water were 58 canada geese and 4 common mergansers.

It was foggy and cold, but still nice to be out enjoying the walk and the birds.  Ginger