NAAS Trip down Lake Mary Road.

On Friday November 6th I headed out to the Kachina Wetlands in hopes of finding a pair of Hooded Mergansers that had been seen the week before. In between we had a 10 inch snow storm, but I was able to find a female among many ducks and coot.

On Saturday November 7th I joined a NAAS field trip for a trip down Lake Mary Road, with stops at both Lakes Mary, at Ashurst Lake and the Mormon Lake overlook.

The trip went pretty much as planned with lots of waterfowl and a few raptors, and we did find a couple of hoped-for surprises, but we found no loons - almost a surprise at this time of year. The Lakes Mary had lots of ducks and a few coot, while Ashurst had lots of both. We had two Bald Eagles at Lower Lake Mary, a Ferruginous Hawk at Mormon Lake and a few Red-tailed Hawks scattered here and there.

The stop of the day was at Osprey Overlook where first a group heading down to the lake shore flushed a Northern Pygmy Owl, first seen by Trevor, who flew into a pine. Then as we were about to leave Jason spotted a diving duck across the lake - a Black Scoter.

Northern Pygmy Owl