[birding] Yellow-billed Cuckoo NO ...

[Joel Geier]

... at Luckiamute State Natural Area in SE Polk Co., that is. 

Following Jay Withgott's discovery of a singing Yellow-billed Cuckoo at
the Sandy River Delta yesterday morning, it occurred to me that this
morning's weather was about as favorable for checking the local habitat,
as anything we're likely to get in the next two weeks.

So I bicycled over to the Luckiamute Landing unit of Luckiamute SNA, and
listened at various stops along the trail through the gallery forest
(dominantly black cottonwood, Oregon ash, & bigleaf maple but with a
diverse understory & willows around the edges). I also listened along
the younger cottonwood plantings.

The result was NO cuckoos heard or seen (closest thing heard were
several calling Dusky-striped Cuckoo-Squirrels, a.k.a. Townsend's
Chipmunks). I didn't see any tent caterpillar webs.

I wonder if anyone's thought about surveying for cuckoos at the Grand
Island Greenway, Truax Island, Snag Boat Bend, Green Island, Elijah
Bristow, Jackson Bottom, or other significant patches of riparian
habitat in the valley? Just a thought.

Also in the realm of negative data, I detected:

- NO Red-eyed Vireos (which are nearly annual here, but this seems to be
one of those years that puts the "nearly" in that phrase), 
- NO Vesper Sparrows (the former small nesting colony seems to have
finally given up, after habitat modifications to the areas that they
were using), and
- NO Common Nighthawks (I have yet to see one in the neighborhood this
year, despite anecdotal reports that suggest better-than-usual numbers
in some other parts of the valley; I found none in two checks of their
past nesting spot at E.E. Wilson).
- NO shorebirds on the gravel bars at the Santiam/Willamette River
confluence.

So, it was kind of a disappointing morning on multiple fronts. As
consolation there was still one WILLOW FLYCATCHER calling and the usual
beautiful chorus of SWAINSON'S THRUSHES etc.  I got to watch a WILSON'S
WARBLER as it foraged in the understory, ranging up into the lower
canopy as high as 40 ft above the ground, and enjoyed watching a
fledgling BEWICK'S WREN along the trail.

Happy birding before it gets hot,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis