Heyburn State Park Field Trip Report

Common Merganser

Submitted by Ted Smith, Coeur d’Alene Audubon Chapter President

On February 26, 2025, three Coeur d’Alene Audubon members left town at 7:30 am and headed to the south end of Lake Coeur d’Alene and Heyburn State Park. We started birding near the park headquarters and Hawley’s Landing. There was little open water in this bay and we only found a few mallards, some tundra swans, and Canada Geese. 

Our next stop was along the Rocky Point Loop Road.  Here we found a good variety of upland species including varied thrush, robin, black-capped and chestnut-backed chickadees, a Bewick’s wren, red crossbills, Stellar’s jays and song sparrows. Moving further along the lake we found open water and quite a few waterfowl and gulls. The most common waterfowl were mallards, Canada geese, and common mergansers. We also found northern pintails, American widgeons, great blue herons as well as ring-billed gulls, California gulls, and a lone American herring gull.  A few more stops filled out our list for the day and we got to enjoy an amazingly beautiful day. Thanks to Mark Launder for driving and Jen Watt for being our official photographer.

Red Crossbill