Trip report: Hutton Lake NWR

Despite looming rainclouds, eighteen birders headed out to Hutton Lake NWR on Saturday, September 16. It turned out to be a good decision! We had a sprinkle of rain but then the cloud cover cleared.

I noted more waterfowl on Hutton Lake during this trip than when I was out there a couple of weekends ago, but they were still mostly dabblers and relatively few diving ducks. There are definitely a lot more Eared Grebes out there now, and Redheads are increasing--so hopefully diving duck diversity will pick up in the next few weeks. We found six species of shorebirds as well.

We accumulated 48 species; the highlights were Red-necked Phalaropes, Black-crowned Night-Herons, Horned Grebes, and cooperative Virginia Rail and Sora.

Our full checklist is here.

Birding from the back side of Hutton. Photo by Libby Megna.