By Carolyn Vance, Field Trip Chair

For those of you who didn’t come out to the trip, you missed a glorious day of birding!  We got our target bird, Wood Ducks first thing, along with Mallards, American Wigeon, a pair of Cinnamon Teal, Gadwalls and Coots, including a couple of babies paddling around in their gray “fuzzy” feathers calling out for their mother.  A pair of Belted Kingfishers flew back and forth one end of the lake, right in front of an Osprey.  We helped John Fitch count 46 Bushtits for entry into E-Bird as they went from tree to tree.  A look at the riverbed got us not only Canada’s but a pair of Greater White-fronted geese.

As we were standing under a tree talking about how we hadn’t seen any warblers we looked up and saw what turned out to be a Zone-tailed Hawk passing over!  That led us to check out the tree we were under and found a Nuttall’s Woodpecker, two Mountain Chickadees and then 10 warblers, including Hermit, Townsend, Black-throated gray and Nashville and Plumbeous Vireo. Just one each, but it was a great tree!  The Zone-tail for a lifer for not only me but also another birder.

Come on out to the next field trip and see what not only what you’ve been missing, but what is happening out in nature.  Birds are incredible creatures and surprise me every time I see one.