ACES Morning Birding at Hallam Lake 11/7/23

November is a great month for birding, with the foliage off the trees and understory, and great visibility. Along the driveway to the visitor center, we stopped to look at two fallen logs with woodpecker cavities that we could see inside. Pygmy Nuthatches called from the cottonwood canopy. Once at the lake, we spotted two Wood Ducks roosting on a fallen tree in Hallam Lake, their colors blending in with the weathered wood and bark. One was a female and the other was a juvenile male whose field marks were mostly there but much less developed than in an adult male – a good learning point for us today. A dipper foraged along the lakeshore and near the photo blind, pausing at one moment to eat a trout fly that it had caught. Other highlights included a Bald Eagle that circled over the preserve and a Virginia Rail that called from the cattail marsh. Join us for the next Morning Birding outing on December 5!