Sunday, January 18 - Grey Lodge. 13 Altacalers braved the threatening January weather for a few hours. The drive from the Park & Ride to the Refuge was quite eventful. We had a flock of 75-100 Long-billed Curlews, scads of Tundra Swans, a mature Bald Eagle flew over our lead car at the "Y" at 149 and 99 and we had a Rough-legged Hawk hovering in a field along side the road.

We hooked up with five more birders at the refuge. We were treated to 4 Blue-winged Teal right off of Parking Lot 14, there were also Green-winged Teal, Cinnamon Teal, Mallards, Shovelers and Gadwall. We then walked out to the viewing platform to view the environmental degradation that State Fish and Game did near the Platform. The wonderful warbler habitat has been completely removed, so the Orange-crowned Warbler and the Common Yellowthroat that had frequented the area were gone. The walk was productive in that we saw Pied-billed Grebes, Common Moorhen, Coots, Great Egrets, White-faced Ibis, Northern Flicker, Nuttal's Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker Marsh Wren, Bushtits, Black Phoebe, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Northern Mockingbird, White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows. From the platform we added Ross's, Snow and White-fronted Geese, Ruddy Duck, Pintail, Bittern and a Loggerhead Shrike.