[birding] Finley Ross's Goose, buttercups & a belated butterfly report

[Joel Geier]

Hi folks,

This afternoon Mark Greenfield (from Portland Audubon) and I did a bit
of quick birding around Finley NWR after wrapping up a Willamette Valley
Birding Trail meeting at headquarters. Birds were sort of quiet despite
the nice sunny weather, but ground squirrels were vocal.

The most notable bird that we saw was a white-phase ROSS'S GOOSE hanging
out with a flock of several thousand cacklers just east of McFadden
Marsh. The flock was flushed by a nearby goose-hazing device before we
managed to get Mark's scope on it, but the shape of the bird in flight,
and its size relative to the cacklers, definitely looked like a Ross's
Goose rather than Snow Goose.

We saw a couple of ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS from the Lincoln Prairie Overlook
(I still like that name even though its origins seem to be apocryphal),
but no shrikes of either the northern or loggerhead persuasion.

Back at home, my daughter Martha noticed that a WESTERN BUTTERCUP is
blooming on the slope behind our house.

Something I forgot to mention: Last Monday (9 Mar) Becky and I saw a
BUTTERFLY while taking advantage of the sun for a picnic lunch at Peavy
Arboretum north of Corvallis. It was a medium-sized, dark brownish
butterfly with a few orange markings, sort of admiralish-looking though
a bit smaller than the Lorquin's Admirals that show up later in the
year. It was about 50 ft away and we only saw it flying away, but anyway
it was the first butterfly that either of us has seen this year.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis