[birding] Sunset Park, Corvallis

[Don Boucher]

12-25-08

We had a lazy Christmas morning inside. There are increasing numbers of Yellow-rumped Warblers around the apartments and our first Varied Thrush "yard bird" of the season. He was eating berries with the robins. Lisa and I did a neighborhood walk this afternoon. Sunset Park is flooded, thanks to the recent rains, snow melt and, especially, the beaver pond at Dunawi Creek. We got two new neighborhood waterfowl, Green-winged Teal, in a flooded field with the mallards, and a pair of Wood Ducks in the creek. The male Belted Kingfisher was active as usual and a small flock of bluebirds came through.

Sunset Park is now a refurbished wetland project with a boardwalk. About a year and a half ago the city re-engineered two of the baseball diamonds closest to Dunawi Creek, which spent most of the spring flooded anyway. This last spring interesting shorebirds began to appear, such as solitary sandpipers and spotted sandpipers. Snipes are often spotted there. Visit there this winter and spring and see what turns up. Sunset Park is at the corner of SW Country Club Drive and SW 45th St.

Don Boucher
Corvallis, OR
www.Neighborhood-Naturalist.com
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