Red phalarope on Bennington Lake

The Tuesday morning walkers found a RED PHALAROPE on Bennington Lake this morning. A first for Bennington Lake and a rare county species.  We chased it around the lake and Judy finally got some photos of it.  You can see these on the Blue Mountain Audubon Facebook page. Thanks to Sue for finding it, Judy for photographing it and MerryLynn for identifying it. 

 

The air was a clear and crisp this morning – a beautiful day for a walk.  There were  28 killdeer and 3 long-billed dowitchers in the mud. We also saw few singing Townsend's solitaires, 3 northern harriers, a sharp-shinned hawk, a red-tailed hawk and lots of ruby-crowned kinglets , black-capped chickadees, dark-eyed juncos and white-crowned sparrows darting in and out of the shrubs and trees as we enjoyed our walk.  We saw 25 species today.

Back to Bennington

It was nice to once again be walking Bennington Lake on Tuesday morning.  The most abundant species today was the American robin – there were about 100 of them.  Juncos, song sparrows and white-crowned sparrows were also numerous.  Townsend's solitaires have returned, as has the northern shrike.  Two Anna's hummingbirds are still enjoying the feeder and there were two long-billed dowitchers in with 19 killdeer in the mud.  A sharp-shinned hawk, a Cooper's hawk and an American kestrel kept all the little birds on their toes.  The leaves are turning and beginning to fall, adding to the beauty of the lake.  We saw a total of 33 species today.

Blue Mountain Audubon Field Trip

Paul and Judy Treman led a group of 14 people on the Audubon Field Trip on October 19.  We visited twelve places in Walla Walla and College Place where it's possible to find birds.  Highlights were lesser goldfinches at the wetlands area by Big-5, a sharp-shinned hawk, a spotted towhee and a ruby-crowned kinglet at Fort Walla Walla Park, wood ducks and a great horned owl at South Wilbur ponds, and a western grebe and Anna's hummingbird at Bennington Lake.  We saw a total of  36 species of birds.  Great outing!

 

 

 

Fort Walla Walla Birds

Since Bennington Lake and Rooks Park are closed, the Tuesday walkers decided to see what birds we could find at Fort Walla Walla.  There are many different places to look for birds there and MerryLynn has spent a lot of time birding the area, so we had a good guide to take us to the best spots.  Everyone got great looks at a white-throated sparrow – that was the highlight of the morning.  Other nice birds seen were hermit thrushes, Wilson's warblers, many ruby-crowned kinglets, yellow-rumped warblers, flickers and black-capped chickadees.  It was nice to bird a different area right here in Walla Walla, although we were wondering what we were missing at Bennington.

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.