[birding] Raptors west of Lebanon

[Joel Geier]

Hi folks,

Yesterday (31 Dec) my son Wil and I did a bit of drive-by birding along
Glaser Rd. in Linn County, on our way home from eastern Oregon. The most
interesting bird was an immature PEREGRINE FALCON perched atop the
highline wire that crosses the gravel section of Glaser Rd., two poles
south of the road. I tried to make it into a Prairie Falcon at first,
but it looked a little too dark and with the scope we could see that it
was a Peregrine.

An adult BALD EAGLE was perched on top of the pole next to the road
while we were looking at the falcon. We also saw a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK
just north of Glaser along Seven Mile Lane (perched on the wire, which
made it easy to call even before we got close enough to see the
markings), plus NORTHERN HARRIER, RED-TAILED HAWK, and AMERICAN
KESTRELS, all within the space of a couple of miles.

Wil decided to start a brand-new life list effective Dec 28th, so the
peregrine and harriers were "lifers" by his rules. Amazingly, we did not
see a single Killdeer on our way home from eastern Oregon, so that's
still a "target" bird. It does open your eyes to re-start the life list
now & then! 

We did better on ACORN WOODPECKERS with two close views in a brief stop
(or actually a roll-by) along Tangent Drive, in the oaks where this road
comes into the east side of Tangent. Lately I've been recommending this
as the easiest spot for out-of-state birders who are passing through our
area on I-5 or Hwy 34 and want to see Acorn Woodpeckers, so good to see
that the colony is still going strong.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis