[birding] north corvallis

[rich armstrong]

1. actually mary garrard and i began in west corvallis at 6 am but cound not hear a saw-whet owl.
2. then i went north to robison road hoping to get trumpeter swan and/or prairie falcon in benton county - i didn't.
3. i had 2 groups of 5 and 7 swans fly over me (not making a sound), but i think they were tundra swans. i then went to the corner of 99 and airlie where there were about 70 swans and 8 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE. i think most of the 70 were tundra but i am pretty sure there were 5-10 TRUMPETER SWANS. there was 1 swan (tundra i am reasonably sure) that had a blue neck band "P975". if anyone knows someone who would be interested in that please pass this on.
4. i did find the PRAIRIE FALCON that paula & marcia found on the airlie count - right where they found it in polk county (on d'armond almost to airlie road) about 1 mile from benton.
5. i find it interesting that i lead a field trip out to this area last winter and we found a prairie falcon right where this bird was, and we found a flock of swans that had about 8 white-fronted geese with them.
6. there was 1 WHITE-TAILED KITE and 1 NORTHERN SHRIKE on military road just south of robison.
7. there were lots of kestrals, harriers, and rough-legged hawks with all the red-tails all along robison. i saw a small falcon fly at a flock of blackbirds and i was hoping for merlin, but it was a kestral
8. the YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER was in his tree for 30 minutes with just 2 quick breaks to fly off toward the pond. i even called paula vanderhuel who drove out while i watched the bird and it was still there when she arrived. there are many many sap holes in the tree and if you want to try for the bird i would suggest just stand on the road with a good view of his tree (tall bare tree on north side of road just west of the hq road) and wait. you may get lucky like i did last 2 days or you may have to wait a while, but i don't think he goes far from that tree. 
9. there has also been a RED-SHOULDERED HAWK right near that interection last 3 times i have been there.
Rich Armstrong
541-753-1978
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