June started off with a splash – with 3 batches? rafts? of baby chicks from the Mallard families around the lake. We have enjoyed watching paddle by 3-4 times a day. There is a large school of baby fish by our dock in the lilies right now, (in July) so we have seen quite a few dabbling visitors. They swim all around the boys, I scolded lil Jon for scooping one up, but still had to get a photo.
We went fishing at Hebo Lake Campground for the Free Fishing Day. Guess who thought we invaded his favorite breakfast spot? He flew round and round and watched all the kiddos. Is it wrong to hope that he’d scoop up a trout off the line of some tiny pink clad girl while she squealed in both horror and delight? Not saying I was, but would it have been wrong?
This little mamma only had to baby ducks. She swims almost all the way around the lake each day with her babies. This is about a mile from our house. I have taken up Canoeing on the lake this year in the mornings. I love seeing my familiar ducks out and about.
Our favorite addition this year has been a large flock of American Gold Finches. We have read that they generally like to be around Pine Siskins, and they did show up with an odd sparrow type bird that resembles the Pine Siskin – but we have not been able to get a decent shot or positive identification.
One exciting thing that happened this month is my Bufflehead just couldn’t stand to leave us. I ‘m sure that’s what he was thinking. . . . He stayed around to hang out with the 10 + Mallard fellas that form a raft on the lake. I had to send several photographs to our local expert to prove that this is what I was seeing. Yep. A non migrating bufflehead. Yeah!
We have a pair of nesting green herons right near our dock. They come out dawn and dusk, so they are hard to photograph. I saw both of them together about 20 feet away, so I tried to get in the canoe and slowly drift over, and that’s when my camera fell out of my life jacket and plopped into the lake. .. . . oooooops.
So there ya have it, a bit late – our June 2011 Birding List Highlights. I am still enjoying the simplicity of keeping the list on the iBirds App, and have found it still well worth the purchase. I need to spend some time this month “favorite-ing” the common birds we’ve seen so far in July.
Here’s the list for June, 2011 –
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American Crow
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American Goldfinch
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American Robin
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Anna’s Hummingbird
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Bald Eagle
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Barn Swallow
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Black-headed Grosbeak
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Bufflehead
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Canada Goose
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Canvas Back
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Dark-eyed Junco
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European Starling
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Great Blue Heron
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Greater Scaup
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Grebe
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Green Heron
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Hairy Woodpecker
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Herring Gull
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House Sparrow
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Loon
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Mallard
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Mourning Dove
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Northern Flicker
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Osprey
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Pine Siskin
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Red-tailed Hawk
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Red-winged Blackbird
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Rock Pigeon
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Spotted Sandpiper
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Steller’s Jay
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Tree Swallow
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Turkey Vulture
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Violet-green Swallow
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White-crowned Sparrow
Encouraged by Tweet and See –
+Angie Wright
Pebblekeeper 
Fabulous list! And those baby ducks are SOOOOOO cute! 🙂
Great list! You are lucky to live close to water so you can see so many water birds. And an eagle…wow!
We recently purchased the backyard birds version of iBird and love it.
Glad you like the iBird – I thought long over which version to get, and decided with our lake and the migration – that the whole kit and caboodle would be a better choice for me. 😉 I think a regional specific program would be great if we ever move. Have you discovered how to set up several favorite accounts for Life List or Monthly /Seasonal lists? In iTunes, when plugged in, under Apps, if you scroll to the bottom, the lists you create are shown as text files and you can drag them to your desktop. That’s how I get the list on the blog. Easy Peasy!!!