[birding] field trip

[rich armstrong]

1. a group of 12 enjoyed zero rain on the 1/2 day corvallis audubon trip this morning.
2. the yellow-bellied sapsucker did not show at all, and we tried at 8 and again around 10 - nothing.
3. we walked out to where joel had a couple swamp sparrows. we were seeing nothing. so i walked into the brown foliage and i flushed a SWAMP SPARROW  that i saw briefly. i called everyone in and it only moved about 10 feet. but it would not come out. we moved to the other side, played it calls, pished, etc - nothing. then some went back to sapsucker area and others tried again. the bird flushed past everyone, but would not come out. time was running out as we needed to go other places. 3 stayed behind just a little longer and cheryl saw it decently and i guess tristen and karl saw it fly a few times. a very frustrating bird. a good leader is supposed to show good birds to all the group, not be the only one to see it - so today i was a bad leader! a couple people got glimpses of a LINCOLN'S SPARROW.
4. canal pond had 2 buffleheads, a pied-billed grebe, and a kingfisher. 
5. back at hq paula vanderhuel had a CHIPPING SPARROW in a small flock of yellow-rumps. only a couple saw that. and at the car the RED-SHOULDERED HAWK posed for everyone.
6. robison road was much more cooperative. everyone saw
    a. male KESTRAL in a scope
    b. WHITE-TAILED KITE in scope
    c. ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK on ground in scope
    d. both male & female NORTHERN HARRIERS
7. the surprise of the day was 2 TRUMPETER SWANS flying right over our heads trumpeting to tell us which they were. i had worked for 4 days at the end of last year to barely see them in benton county and today they were super cooperative.
8. we did not find the swan flock at the corner of airlie/99 and we didn't have time to drive the rest of airlie road.
9. the next field trip will be tuesday feb 13.
Rich Armstrong
541-753-1978
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