[birding] Circumtrek on Finley

[howard bruner]

Yesterday 4/10, I circled Cabell marsh which was new
territory for me. I headed south on the western edge of the marsh into the
fields/wetlands/ash forest. It was glorious to encounter hundreds of Willamette
bittercress which were the only blooming flower. Myriad other herbal residents
covered the forest floor in ankle-high clean green. Major elk trails snaked
everywhere and I was expecting an encounter as I traveled through their home
range. I did not meet any elk, which is actually a good thing as they are big
and unpredictable, but I did find many song sparrows, marsh wrens,
yellowthroats, and when I stumbled into clearings white-crowns and house
finches. When I hit the dike road that swings west across the southern end of
the marsh I found the sky filled with swallows and butterflies and squalls. Osprey
hovered as eagles watched.  I sat on the
beautiful wood bench and watched as the evening opened up. Good numbers of Canada
geese still moved from the east and north back to Cabell, and the trees in
bloom sported purple finch and Hutton’s vireo. The Prunus trees along the road
below the HQ were full of orange-crowns and p finches and Turtle Flats had a
particular soundscape I wished I could have captured: red-wings, marsh wrens,
greater yellowlegs, pied-billed grebes, yellowthroats and tree swallows created
a wetland symphony that exemplified the joy of life.

 

Before I left I ventured out onto Lincoln
prairie and found abundant meadowlark and savannah sparrow. The emerging flora
reminded me of Yellowstone in 1989 – a vigor that seems
to translate the consumption of flame into the anabolistic explosions of resurrection.
 


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