[birding] Horned Larks on NW side of Coffin Butte, singing raven but no gulls

[Joel Geier]

Hi folks,

Yesterday I came across a pair of HORNED LARKS on the NW side of Coffin
Butte (about 1/2 mile south of Robison Rd., along Wiles Rd.), during a
walk which included warm sunshine, cold rain, hail, and a few snow
pellets. I didn't get a good enough look to judge subspecies but they
were acting like nesting birds and the habitat looks right (stubble
field with lots of bare dirt), so I'd guess these are from the locally
nesting & imperiled subspecies, Streaked Horned Larks.

The large flock of AMERICAN ROBINS that was along Wiles & Robison seems
to have moved on, with just a few dozen remaining. Numbers of WHITE-
CROWNED SPARROWS seem to have increased locally. The most surprising
sight was a RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER working the line of small trees along
the east side of Wiles Rd., amid otherwise wide-open fields.

About 8 COMMON RAVENS were cavorting on a thermal over the Morse Bros.
quarry on the southwest end of Coffin Butte, and later one raven was
singing. I'll say this much: the raven's song was more musical than some
of the stuff that I danced to in my younger years.

I haven't seen any gulls at all around Coffin Butte in the past 4-5
days, despite plenty of tasty-looking garbage on the south slope. They
must have returned to home base in Albany, or else have started to
migrate out.

I thought I heard a Townsend's Warbler singing from the conifers by the
landfill office just before it started to hail & snow, but I didn't hear
it quite well enough to be sure -- could have been a Black-throated
Gray.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis