18 participants including visitors from Ontario and India turned out to
hike the Beaver Lake Trail this morning. A beautiful morning after last
evening's storm, which raised the water level of the lake and feeder creeks
so that we had to ford in a couple of places. It took us an hour to get
out of the immediate area of the parking lot, thanks to an enormously
cooperative Hermit Thrush that had me fooled with its mewing Catbird or
Towhee like call. Then there were three entertaining Red-headed
Woodpeckers. Ovenbird (new arrival) was the first bird that I heard when I
arrived. Surprises were the female Blue-winged Teal seen in flight and the
four female Hooded Mergansers still present. Canada Geese are nesting.
Lots of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, almost as many as we had on this week's
trip to Radcliffe Conservation Area. There must have been a good flight of
them this week. Very vocal and visible Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Common
Yellowthroat captivated the group.
Despite some obvious misses, we had a total of 41 species.
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S22798361
Special thanks go to Betsy and Ben Saunders for their help, particularly in
sharing their scope.
--
Wendy Ealding
Midlothian
