Sunday, March 6, 2011

Cinnamon Teal on Lake Wichita Barrow Pit


Cinnamon teal by Dick Daniels, Wikimedia Commons

It was a gorgeous morning at Lake Wichita Park this morning. When I left the house, it was 35 degrees, but sunny with NO WIND.

I decided to take the Chat trail and walk around the barrow pit. It started out an average morning in terms of birds but soon improved.

When I got to the barrow pit, I walked around the perimeter. I was trying to get a better look at some ducks in the center of the pond. When I was on the far side some ducks flushed from the reeds. When they first came up and I saw the wing pattern, I thought "blue winged teal" although the birds seemed a little large. It's good I kept an eye on them as they circled and landed again on the opposite side, as they turned out to be cinnamon teal--much less common in our area and very beautiful ducks.

Overall it turned out to be a very nice walk, with the following birds seen:

Buffledhead, American coot, ring-necked duck, cinnamon teal, mallard, pintail, killdeer, common merganser, pied-billed grebe, great blue heron, ring-billed gull, white pelican, Eurasian collared dove, white-winged dove, northern flicker, downy woodpecker, red-tailed hawk, turkey vulture, American robin, northern cardinal, blue jay, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, ruby-crowned kinglet, American goldfinch, cedar waxwing, yellow-rumped warbler, mockingbird, Eastern phoebe, red-tailed blackbird, great-tailed grackle, dark-eyed junco, Harris's sparrow, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, and white-crowned sparrow.

Good birding!