This outing began with major swallow activity overhead that was sustained throughout the morning. We enjoyed several spotted sandpipers on the lake shore, a belted kingfisher that was actively hunting, and many song sparrows and chickadees in the willows. A pair of ospreys, possibly the resident pair whose nest failed this year, actively worked at a former heron nest in a dead spruce tree above the lake. The ospreys broke sticks off trees and worked them into the nest along with green foliage. This behavior is interesting for late summer, a time when nesting is not feasible; we wondered if they had decided to establish a new nest for themselves well ahead of time for next year’s effort. It will be fun to watch what they do next spring! Along the Rio Grande Trail, we were treated to red-naped sapsuckers feeding at their active sap wells, a western tanager, pygmy nuthatches, and a bunch of wrens and ruby-crowned kinglets that were feeding fledglings, including a large brown-headed cowbird fledgling – all of this activity was in the same clump of serviceberry shrubs. We were enthralled by this pocket of major bird activity right on the side of this busy trail. Over the river, swallows swooped and made close passes by us, while yellow warblers flitted in the shoreline willows. Join us next week for more late summer birding at North Star Nature Preserve!