Yesterday, before catching a flight home from Omaha, I decided to spend my free hour birding around Lake Manawa, in Council Bluffs, Pottawatomie Co. I was very pleased with my choice of birding locale, and my brief trip was highlighted by incredible numbers of Northern Shovelers and American Coots, as well as smaller (but still sizeable) numbers of Blue-winged Teal, Pied-billed Grebe, and Franklin's Gull. Other potentially notable birds were a single Hudsonian Godwit on the southeastern corner of the lake and an Eared Grebe along the western shore mixed in with a group of coots and a handful of Pied-billed Grebes. It was rather warm, and landbird activity was virtually nonexistent.
Full list: Canada Goose 2 Gadwall 10 American Wigeon 4 Blue-winged Teal 250 Northern Shoveler 750 Estimated. Very large numbers of Shovelers mixed in with coots and BWTE. Counted over 200 at first vantage point of lake, larger groups visible from other vantage points. Eventually became overwhelming given my limited amount of time to get a reasonable estimate. Northern Pintail 7 Green-winged Teal (American) 4 Ruddy Duck 3 Pied-billed Grebe 50 Eared Grebe 1 Red-tailed Hawk 1 American Coot 1500 Conservative estimate. HUGE numbers of coots present lining almost the entire western lakeshore. At any given stop, only counted birds along the immediate shoreline, and tried to avoid counting birds that would have been visible from previous stops. Killdeer 1 American Avocet 4 http://www.flickr.com/photos/bgriffith/6939190408/ Greater Yellowlegs 10 Lesser Yellowlegs 6 Hudsonian Godwit 1 Franklin's Gull 400 http://www.flickr.com/photos/bgriffith/6939189348/ Ring-billed Gull 1 1st cycle bird Forster's Tern 5 Downy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 1 Purple Martin 1 Tree Swallow 14 Black-capped Chickadee 2 American Robin 25 Chipping Sparrow 2 Northern Cardinal 1 American Goldfinch 2 House Sparrow 1 Ben Griffith Newmarket, NH --- Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as members make it! --- Birding channel recommendation for FRS/GMRS radio use: Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0 --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/PayDues.aspx. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]
