[birding] Baskett Slough area birds

[Joel Geier]

Hi all,

In the course of doing WESTERN MEADOWLARK surveys along Livermore Rd. &
Smithfield Rd. (north side of Baskett Slough NWR, Polk Co.) this
morning, I encountered a few bonus birds:

BLUE-WINGED TEAL (three flying over Livermore Rd. -- at least one male,
others presumed guilty by association)
NORTHERN SHOVELER (three males flying around together)
AMERICAN BITTERN (heard ga-lunking from behind one of the berms)
OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER (this was kind of weird, see notes below)
HORNED LARK (four or five seen/heard)
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT (singing male)
YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD (several males heard and one seen flying over
Livermore Rd.)

The Olive-sided Flycatcher was in aodd situation, foraging from a dead
apple tree that was only about 12 ft high, in a pasture with scattered
scrubby trees along Livermore Rd. It never called (neither the
pip-pip-pip call nor the "McMinnville!" a.k.a. "quick, three beers"
call) in the 20 minutes or so that I kept an eye on it while surveying
that patch for meadowlarks. It did most of its foraging on horizontal
sorties within 5-10 feet of the ground, sometimes hovering almost like a
phoebe just a few feet above the ground, though I didn't see it dive
into the grass. It seemed to be settled in that location, but then
finally disappeared when a biplane came flying over at low (~50 ft)
altitude.

I looked for but didn't see any sign of the Western Kingbirds that were
around last month.

Wildflowers along the roads included MULE'S EAR and OOKOW.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis