Birding in the fog

As I mentioned yesterday, we went out birding this morning over at Ives Run on Hammond Lake. Our goal was shorebirds since the lake is down considerably due to the lack of rainfall over the last three or four months. Gary had reported several different sandpipers and even some plovers in attendance. But the morning fog hampered our ability to scan much of the shoreline even with our spotting scopes. Still, we had a very nice day and tallied over 40 species. (Gary always seems to get one or two more than I do but then I only list what I personally see/hear and he tallies the groups' results.) The highlights of the trip for me were several. There were a great many great blue herons along the shore that we could see. There was an immature bald eagle on oneo f the exposed islands feeding on a fish ad an adult that flew overhead. And there were ospreys in abundance. I only listed three but there may have been more and two of those we saw were carrying sizable fish while keening overhead as if to brag about their catches. After a couple of hours on the lake shore we went up the road to the gamelands and came upon a host of robins, indigo buntings and other birds feeding on berries and seeds. We even spotted a black and white warbler that had strayed far from his normal habitat and was in a shrub in the middle of the field. Anyway, here is the result of our walk (as I recorded it):

Location: Ive's Run
Observation date: 8/9/07
Notes: Morning fog finally cleared around 9AM
Number of species: 41

Canada Goose 30
Mallard 1
Common Merganser 10
Great Blue Heron 7
Green Heron 2
Osprey 4
Bald Eagle 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Killdeer 2
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Lesser Yellowlegs 3
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Ring-billed Gull 1
Mourning Dove 4
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 3
Belted Kingfisher 3
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Blue Jay 8
Cliff Swallow 6
Barn Swallow 18
Carolina Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
American Robin 12
Gray Catbird 3
Brown Thrasher 1
Cedar Waxwing 2
Yellow Warbler 3
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Song Sparrow 9
Northern Cardinal 3
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 5
Indigo Bunting 10
Red-winged Blackbird 5
Common Grackle 3
Baltimore Oriole 1
American Goldfinch 9

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)