[birding] Additions to the jeweled crown

[howard bruner]

The last 2 days have been spent seeing new parts of the
WV.  Yesterday I joined some friends
doing bird surveys across private lands that are in habitat management under conservation
easements.  These areas are west and northwest
of Junction City.  The winter’s abundant water is pooled across
anything flat or cupped and we spent 4 hours at the first site splooshing
through standing water.  This wetland
complex of ponds and open fields had several adult bald eagles, n harrier (3
sub-adults males or females) and a sharp-shinned hawk.  The ponds were fairly well populated by
wigeon and green-wing teal until the combination of us and the eagles cleared
them.  Bare silver water - except for the
strings of decoys – this is a hunted complex - and I was tricked into adding
non-existent pintails and mallards to our list until we approached way too
close for wild, hunted waterfowl to remain sedately bobbing in one place.  I haven’t made that mistake for decades due to
the fact I have not been in seriously hunted areas (I have been known to try to
count decoys at every opportunity).  The
real exciting stuff was the 19 greater yellowlegs, 7 Wilson’s snipe, and 20
dunlin that were all moving and feeding as single-species flocks.  We also bumped up several single snipe and
one lb dowticher.  A small flock of
savannah sparrow were out in the bare dirt portions of one field.

 

We moved onto a second site that held an abundant woody component
spread across a series of ponds and dikes. 
We encountered very different species use compared to the first site. Ten
g egrets, a marsh wren, several song sparrow, a handful of savannah sparrow, 1
Lincoln’s sparrow, 1 meadowlark, 2 wt kite, and one n shrike.  The shrike was located as a squall washed
through and we stayed with it until the sun picked it out with a backdrop of
charcoal cloud.  Yellow-rumps and robins
worked the fingers of spring yellowed willows that snaked along edges.  We flushed a gw teal that had a broken wing
(shot?) but it was still in good enough shape to elude any help.  A double rainbow lead us back to the rig but
I could not locate the pot of gold.

 

Today I joined the Greenbelt Land Trust field trip to the Willamette
Buttes land parcel.  Geese moved across
the sapphire vault and full winter sunlight sparkled in the wet grass
fields.  Red-winged blackbirds were in
full song in the small wetland system onsite. 
A walk across open, recently planted grass fields was uneventful as was
the first trip across the forested cliff edge that lords over the Willamette
just downstream from the confluence with the Santiam and Luckiamute
rivers.  The river gleamed below and
small toy-like boats pushed dc cormorants and ducks around as they zipped
by.  We two serious birders shook off the
others (very well attended event – over 30 folks) and retraced our steps alone through
the now silent copse.  The forest floor
was resplendent with newly sprouted forbs so delicate and fresh it was painful
to tread upon them.  Snakeweed, toothwort,
Nemophila, and geranium laced the inch high layer of cotyledon growth. We woke song
sparrow, Bewicks wren, rb nuthatch, gc kinglet, Steller’s jay, rt hawk, robin,
winter wren, Huttons vireo, and de junco by some squeaking, owl sounds, and the
absence of a crowd of folks. I swear it was like coaxing Munchkins out from
hiding. The seemingly deserted glade was revealed as a refuge of diversity.  I expect if we had time we could have found
rc kinglet, wb nuthatch (in the mature oak) and fox sparrow.  Tales were told of vultures having used the forested
bluff for a roost.  A distant rattle of
kingfisher floated up to us as we turned to rejoin the group.

 

h

 		 	   		  
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