[birding] Goodbye peregrine, hello tanager

[Joel Geier]

Hi all,

Yesterday afternoon my daughter Martha and I made a somewhat less
ambitious hike than Bill's, and scaled the dizzying heights of Coffin
Butte (elevation gain about 150 ft). We were looking for WESTERN FENCE
LIZARDS and heard a couple scurrying through the leaves, but didn't
manage to see one. 

While scanning from the overlook about halfway up, I saw a distant
PEREGRINE FALCON winging rapidly north, high over the valley. Continuing
along the trail we saw WESTERN COLUMBINE bloom, and lots of MENZIE'S
LARKSPUR that's just about ready to bloom. Several COMMON(?) BLUES and a
few other small butterfly spp. were checking out the flowers in the
upper meadow.

This morning from our back yard I heard a "pic-i-tic" and looked up the
slope to see a male WESTERN TANAGER perched atop a small Douglas-fir.
WILSON'S, BLACK-THROATED GRAY, AND ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS were singing
but I couldn't pick out anything else.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis