[birding] 10+ Eurasian Wigeons, gulls at Grand Prairie Park, Albany

[Joel Geier]

Hi folks,

I had an errand in Tangent today and stopped by Grand Prairie Park in
Albany on the way there. This small city park was nominated for the
Willamette Valley Birding Trail as one of the most reliable spots for
EURASIAN WIGEON.

It certainly delivered on that today when I stopped by to get GPS
coordinates. I counted at least 8 males and 2 females (that stood out
from the American Wigeon hens), and I didn't even check one gaggle of
about 80 wigeon that were heading off over a little hill. No doubt there
are just as many females as males, if you spend enough time sorting them
out. One pair swam right under the little footbridge while I walked over
it. 

As you can guess from the above, these birds are very acclimated to
humans. The same goes for the large gull flock (a couple hundred today).
This, along with Waverly Park (which had at least 300 roosting at dusk
when we drove by after a visit to in-laws in Scio last week) is also one
of the more reliable gull spots in the mid-valley, and you'll get much
closer views than Coffin Butte.

There was one fair candidate for first-year Glaucous Gull though the
separation of colors on the bill was sort of grungy. It could use a
better look than I had time for; maybe someone could even make it into
an Iceland Gull.

If you want to study gulls, be sure to come bearing food or they'll
complain. They were definitely not pleased to have me just looking at
them without offering any compensation.

To find this park, from Hwy 20 eastbound turn right (south) on Geary
St., go a mile, then left on Grand Prairie and go 0.4 miles, park will
be the right. It's not much to look at in terms of other habitat, since
the grass is very heavily grazed and the trees & shrubs are sort of
sparse & manicured-looking.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier