I (Priscilla) did not go on the Walterville Bird Walk, but Don Delaufer did and he wrote a short commentary about the trip,
so I will use that for our trip report. The weather was extremely gloomy and rainy that day, and in fact,
only about a dozen birders braved the elements for that trip.
Fortunately, Don had gone to Walterville the day before the BOGS trip and took photos of some of the same birds
under much better lighting conditions. Don decided, and I agreed, to include those photos
because there were not many good photos from the day of the BOGS trip.
The remainder of the text in this report will be Don's commentary.
The day started out with heavy overcast and moderate rain. A couple of groups of Lesser Scaups were observed
in the canal near the parking lot. Before we got more than 100 yards along the trail
a Bald Eagle took off from the brush along the southeast edge of the pond area
and flew over the pond, scaring off most of the waterfowl that were there.
Not too long after that everyone's optics began to fog up which made a difficult situation worse.
As luck would have it there was a male Belted Kingfisher in the brush
at the east end of the pond area near the trail and it stayed put for quite a while
allowing everyone to get a good look at it.
There were also numbers of sparrows, Juncos and at least one Northern Flicker in the same area.
The rain let up slightly as we rounded the northeast corner of the pond area
where we observed an Egret, Great Blue Heron and several Killdeer.
In the distance we could see a number of Green-winged Teal feeding in the exposed mudflats.
Along the northern edge of the pond we saw a large number of Ruby-crowned Kinglets flitting through the trees
and Chickadees and Song Sparrows in the brushy areas near the pond.
Further along the northern edge of the pond we observed a number of Common Mergansers
and a lone Canvasback out on the pond.
As we came to the spillway area we observed several Spotted Towhees in the blackberries
and more Song Sparrows along the canal.
A raptor was seen sitting in the field on the other side of the canal
but it was so far away and everyone's optics were so fogged up
that it took awhile for everyone to agree that it was probably a female Northern Harrier.
Another Kingfisher was observed sitting on the power-line crossing over the canal.
The trip back to the parking lot was accompanied by increasingly heavy rain
and the return of many of the waterfowl that left at the beginning of the walk.
Among the late arrivals were Wigeons and Lesser Scaups.
The walk ended in a heavy downpour.
Don Laufer
Bird list for walk at Waterville Pond, January 28, 2016.
The weather was continuous rain, heavy at beginning and end of walk.
--- bird list compiled by Doris Wimber
1. Great egret
2. Great blue heron
3. Mallard
4. American wigeon
5. Canvasback
6. Green-winged teal
7. Lesser scaup
8. Common merganser
9. Northern harrier
10. Bald eagle
11. American coot
12. Killdeer
13. mourning dove
14. Kingfisher
15. Northern flicker
16. Scrub jay
17. American crow
18. Black-capped chickadee
19. Ruby-crowned kinglet
20. Spotted towhee
21. Song sparrow
Questions about BOGS? EMAIL: priscilla@blog.priscillanhk.com
The photo slide-show for this trip can be found here:
http://priscillanhk.com/bogs-walterville-jan28-2016.html
Generally if you want to know what is happening next at BOGS, or want to see the latest photos/reports,
you can find these on the HOME page:
http://priscillanhk.com/index.html
Enjoy!
Priscilla
