Seventeen of us started out to Arlington in a heavy fog, and when it finally lifted we had a great day for birding. Our group consisted of John Arnett, Marshall Esty, Phil Evanstock, Shirley Fackelman, Jed Fulkerson, Russ Harris (visiting from Ohio), Ian Jeffrey, Cheri Laude, Vera Markham, Barb Meding, Rich and Carol Schooler, Carol Sharpin, Donna Smith, Dan and JoAnne Wertz (visiting from Idaho) and George Wall.

The lower river ponds had an Osprey, several species of ducks and one lone American Avocet. Barb Meding was scanning the fields across from the ponds when she spotted the Tundra Swan which was one of our objectives. We all got good looks at it and we saw his concave bill, but did not see any yellow on the beak.

We traversed many of the smaller roads where there were flooded fields and in one, we found hundreds of birds – mostly White-faced Ibis and Long-billed Curlew. In the drier areas of reeds  and brush, we encountered quite a few sparrow species. It was a great day!

The 66 species of birds we saw were Double-crested Cormorant, Neotropic Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Cattle Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron, White-faced Ibis, Tundra Swan, American Wigeon, Mallard, Northern Shoveler, Canvasback, Common Merganser, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Gambel’s Quail, American Coot, American Avocet, Killdeer, Long-billed Curlew, Greater Yellowlegs, Rock Pigeon, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Mourning Dove, Greater Roadrunner, Great Horned Owl, Burrowing Owl, Anna’s Hummingbird, Northern Flicker, Black Phoebe, Say’s Phoebe, Vermilion Flycatcher, Horned Lark, Violet-green Swallow, Northern Rough-winged  Swallow, Cliff Swallow, American Pipit, Marsh Wren, Verdin, Loggerhead Shrike, Common Raven, European Starling, House Sparrow, House Finch, Lesser Goldfinch, Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Spotted Towhee (h), Abert’s Towhee, Brewer’s Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Lark Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Western Meadowlark, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Great-tailed Grackle and Brown-headed Cowbird.