First visit of the year to White Rock Lake

During my last meeting with Chuck Carlson he mentioned about the bird walks lead by Chris Runk at White Rock Lake fish hatchery area and he mentioned it would be a good walk to learn lot about the birds. The walk starts at around 7:30AM. The weather was pretty chilly and with wind too. It was challenge to bird near the Dam area because of the wind. We saw lot of Gulls and cormorants near the dam and huge batch of Bonaparte's gull flew by. It was my first sighting of this bird and size difference between Ring-billed and Bonaparte's was very obvious to the naked eye.

We saw lot of birds in the wooded area which include Woodpeckers, Flickers and sparrows. We also saw Wood ducks, Mallards and Shovelers in the wooded area. We came back to the dam after the sun was out and this time we saw lot of birds near the trees. We got very good looks of Golden-crowned Kinglet and ruby-crowned kinglets. We also saw Yellow-rumped warblers and orange-crowned warbler. We also saw a lone Sapsucker.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Northern Shoveler

After this me and Chuck went to TD hills area at White Rock lake to see the birds around. We saw Mallards, Coots and Shovelers here. But the highlight was seeing the number of Black-crowned night herons. We saw atleast 5 juveniles and atleast a dozen adult herons. I also saw few yellow-rumped warblers, field sparrow and monk parakeets here. Also saw both Neotropic and Double-crested cormorants. A very good place to observe the difference in these 2 cormorants. We also saw a lone Red-shouldered hawk and I saw crows chasing another Red-shouldered hawk here.

Northern Shoveler

Shoveler Beak pose

Double-crested Cormorant

Black-crowned Night Heron

Neotropic Cormorant

American Coot

Ring-billed Gull

White-winged Dove

Dark-eyed Junco

Song Sparrow?

Field Sparrow

Yellow-rumped Warble.

After this I decided to head towards the sunset bay area to try my luck with Buffleheads. Enroute on the lake I saw lot of Ruddy ducks. They had congregated at at 3 places and in total they were about 50 birds and all of them were kin of sleeping with the necks tucked inside :-). Really liked the way their tail feathers show up :-) Reached the sunset bay area and all I saw were Gulls, Coots and Mallards. There were lot of Cormorants on the lake too. Then I saw lone female Bufflehead and when I was trying to photograph it I saw all the cormorants took to air. And when we tried to see the reason for all this commotion I saw a big bird flying over this group and immediately took a photograph and looking at the bird I thought it had to be an eagle and when I reviewed the photo it was clear that it was a Bald Eagle, my first sighting of this bird:-) I had been waiting to see this bird for a long time. After this I headed back home with Bald Eagle flight running through my mind.

Rudy Duck

American Kestrel

Bufflehead

Bald Eagle

Northern Mockingbird

Ebird lists for the day.

WRL Fish Hatchery area : http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26832679
TD Hills area : http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26832766
Sunset Bay area : http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26832849

Birds seen during the day.

1	Yellow-rumped Warbler
2	Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
3	Wood Duck
4	White-winged Dove
5	White-throated Sparrow
6	Tufted Titmouse
7	Ruby-crowned Kinglet
8	Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
9	Ring-billed Gull
10	Red-winged Blackbird
11	Red-shouldered Hawk
12	Red-shouldered Hawk
13	Red-bellied Woodpecker
14	Pied-billed Grebe
15	Pied-billed Grebe
16	Orange-crowned Warbler
17	Northern Shoveler
18	Northern Mockingbird
19	Northern Flicker
20	Northern Cardinal
21	Neotropic Cormorant
22	Mourning Dove
23	Monk Parakeet
24	Mallard
25	Herring Gull
26	Hermit Thrush
27	Great Egret
28	Great Blue Heron
29	Golden-crowned Kinglet
30	Field Sparrow
31	European Starling
32	Eastern Phoebe
33	Eastern Bluebird
34	Downy Woodpecker
35	Double-crested Cormorant
36	Dark-eyed Junco
37	cormorant sp.
38	Carolina Chickadee
39	Bufflehead
40	Bonaparte's Gull
41	Blue Jay
42	Black-crowned Night-Heron
43	Black Vulture
44	Bald Eagle
45	American White Pelican
46	American Robin
47	American Kestrel
48	American Crow
49	American Coot