[birding] Big Townsend's Warbler fallout yesterday, 22 Apr

[Joel Geier]

Hi folks,

Yesterday morning seemed to have a big fallout of TOWNSEND'S WARBLERS on
the ridge behind our house (the Poison Oak Hill end of Tampico Ridge),
just west of E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area. I've taken to scoping the tops
of the tall Douglas-firs as a lazy way of doing motorless birding, and
was hoping for my first Hermit Warbler of the year. There were a lot of
"He-Tow" shaped warblers chasing around (the right shape and with
yellowish faces), but every single one that I managed to get the scope
on had a Townsend's face pattern.

I saw at least 15 in the space of 20 minutes, but no doubt missed many
more that weren't as high up in the treetops. All of them seemed to be
moving north along the ridgeline, and eventually dropping down into the
dense Douglas-fir plantings just south of Coffin Butte, on the landfill
company's buffer lands alongside Hwy 99W. It would have been interesting
to know how many Townsend's Warblers spent the day in that patch of
trees.

This is all the more amazing to me since, in the main tract of E.E.
Wilson Wildlife Area just across Hwy 99W, so far as I know there's only
one record for Townsend's Warbler (there have been considerably more
records in the few years since the Coffin Butte tract was added to the
wildlife area). I guess there's no reason for a Townsend's Warbler to
stray into conifer-poor E.E. Wilson, when there are dense conifers just
across the highway.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis