[birding] liquid air and aerial crops 1/8

[howard bruner]

I decided to go out just as the rain began spattering big cold drops.  I found 5 kestral and 2 RTH on the way from Corvallis to Buena Vista Rd
sitting on wires and poles.  A great egret slowy flapped across Ryals rd.  The rain heightened the poisoned field NW of Ryals and Independence Hwy intersection into a pumkin colored carpet.  

I started to bike into the Luckiamute State Natural Area (aka Luckiamute Landing awa Vanderpool Tract) in a shower that very soon became a foggy bath of rain.  No mistake -  I was out to experience this - geared up as close to a bird (in terms of waterproofing) as I could get.  

The way in was sloppy and puddled, intermixed with with feeding sparrows.  Alongside the pine plantings I dislodged 2 distinct flocks - one of ~ 20 DE Juncos and the other with at least 15 song sparrows separated by 300 yds but feeding in the same short vegetation.  Golden-crowns were less concentrated but no less numerous.  A small flock of bushtits flitted among the pine.  In the gallery forest the chip notes and chatter of passerines followed me continuously.  I stopped to squeak up bc chickadees, song sparrows many fox sparrows and towhees which amazingly all came out of the dripping soggy thickets as dry as a silicone dessicant packet.  Only one bird of the hundred or so that I saw was noticably wet and bedraggled and it was a hatchling year song sparrow - I assumed because it had a sorrowful demeanor and acted as if it didn't quite understand its danger.

The trail ended just beyond small first meadow that Joel Geier has pointed out is the result of a old gravel bar.  The trail drops off a few feet from the meadow and I found the Willamette River flowing there through the gallery forest with great vigor.  The current moved through thickets and around massive cottonwood boles - a gorgeous sage-green mixed with riffles of gun-metal gray.  The rain fought the moving water for mastery of sound.  Branches swayed and flotsam cracked along.  A female harrier worked the ag field on the way out.  I bounced the 2 aforementioned flocks from the same areas.  A downy woodpecker pikked in the riparian forest along the Luckiamute River.  

I loaded up my bike and went on up to the ODFW Luckiamute Coop Mangement Area and saddled up from some more slog thrashing.  I find it interesting how the ponding changes from year to year in these fields.  I had to ford a half meter in the usual place right at the start but after that I only splashed through inches in places that in previous years had presented major roadblocks.  The field beyond the first N-S tree line was planted in wheat this year then left standing.  Now it has sprouted in the head and in places where it is clumped it looks like a desert shrub and where its layed down it has become a floating layer of young bright grass unattached to the ground. 

Sparrows were everywhere and here they were singing.  It sounded like a warm spring evening. I found bright savannahs, loads of g-c, and heard American goldfinch.  When I had bushwacked back into the last field, passing through headhigh Queen Anne's lace and prickly lettuce, I finally bogged down when the blackberries wrapped up my petals and ripped up my rain pants.  I dropped the bike and moved along until I could see the entire back field.  White-gold colored canary reed spotted the dark purplish patches of spent forbs.  All in a chaos of swirling flattened and standing senescence.  

I soaked in the rain, atmosphere, and joy.  The light was leaving.  14 swans appeared out of the cloud, flew in slow motion across a gap, then silently reformed with the cloud.  

H 
 		 	   		  
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