Monday, November 22, 2010

Lake Wichita on Sunday

The weather was wonderful on Sunday morning--perhaps a little too warm to be perfect, but still much better than summer. The birds were loving the weather. With the leaves falling, the birds are becoming easier to see.

My favorites Sunday were some fox sparrows in the marshy area where the chat trail intersects with the trail over the dam and a few eared grebes on the barrow pit. I also saw two late barn swallows at the spillway. I hope they plan to move on by Thanksgiving--we are supposed to get a very cold front by then. But for now, the weather is nice and there are still plenty of insects around.

I noticed the giant reed and many of the reeds near the spillway had been removed, allowing better visabilty. I was glad to see the invasive giant reeds taken down and hope whoever was responsible keeps up the good work. There were still some giant reeds standing, but they were in an area that was not very accessible.

Other birds seen: American pipit, kestrel, great blue heron, lesser yellowlegs, rng-billed gull, gren-winged teal, American coot, mallard duck, white pelican, Bewick's wren, killdeer, some unidentified peeps, white-winged dove, house sparrow, dark-eyed junco, white-crowned sparrow, savannah sparow, song sparrow, cardinal, northern mockingbrd, blue-winged teal, American goldfinch, eastern phoebe, northern shoveler, pied-billed grebe, red-winged blakbrd, blue jay, canvasback, bufflehead, double-crested cormorant, ruddy ducl, American wigeon, sharp-shinned hawk, robin, mourning dove, Eurasian collared dove, yellow-rumped warbler, Eurpean starling, and great-tailed grackle.

Good birding!

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