We birded Kirk Park below the Fern Ridge Reservoir dam. A River Otter was seen in the first pool below the dam. Almost each time it surfaced, it had a fish in its mouth. The fisherman bobber-fishing the same pool wasn't doing nearly so well! Lots of Swallows were seen; an Osprey studied the water below his perch on part of the structure of the dam; Common Yellowthroat calls teased us mercillessly in several places, while not allowing us to see them. In addition to these, Don photographed Western Tanagers, Black-headed Grosbeaks, Spotted Towhees, newly fledged California Scrub Jays, Bewick's Wrens, Song Sparrows, A Cedar Waxwing and even a Black Phoebe; while I also got a Clark's Grebe in the Reservoir and a Great Blue Heron flying overhead.

I am not often the one to be the first to spot a bird, so the highlight of the day for me was my spotting a Black-throated Gray Warbler which had been tormenting Donna with its call again and again while she could not remember what bird made that call. She was humorously apologizing to the group for failing to identify the call when I spotted the bird and called her over to show it to her. She was ecstatic to see it and match it with the call that had been been challenging her recall. I was pretty happy about it too because this was only the 2nd time I have identified that species on my own. (The first time was last Summer on the Aug 31 bird walk at the Springfield Millrace Trail which opened Spring 2017).

Thanks to Janet Naylor for providing her bird list

Janet's notes:
Kirk Park and Kirk Pond, Thurs. July 5, 2018.
8:30am. - 11:30am. Weather sunny.
Other than birds:
River Otter, in second pool north of concrete dam; it caught 3 small (6-inch) fish, while a fisherman was fishing 10 - 40 feet away and didn’t catch anything; plus an osprey was sitting on railing above the concrete dam watching the whole thing.
John DeLuca and his group were doing a bird-netting species count in the northern part of Kirk Park.

A partial bird list: (I didn’t get a complete list of what everyone else saw, but here is my list)

(Additional birds were added to Janet's list, based on photographs taken)