[birding] Bittern nesting at Evergreen Mitigation Bank

[Joel Geier]

Hi All 

Last Thursday (10 Jun) Ray Fiori was doing vegetation surveys at the
Evergreen Mitigation Bank wetlands SE of Philomath, and flushed an
AMERICAN BITTERN from a nest. Here's his description:

> an American bittern jumped up between my legs and almost gave me a
> heart attack.  It had 5 mallard size eggs, which were a solid gray
> color. The nest was dead grass shaped into a shallow bowl on top very
> saturated soils.  It was in an area with some nitrogen runoff from the
> adjacent field out in the prairie dominated by almost head high Tufted
> hairgrass and meadow barley, ~200 yds west of the emergent marsh areas
> on the south side.

He's also found a WILSON'S PHALAROPE nest in the same general area, also
two phalaropes predated by RED-TAILED HAWKS within the past week. GREAT
HORNED OWLS nested successfully at this site again this year, in the
riparian growth along Evergreen Creek.

For directions to Evergreen Mitigation Bank, see Site A10 on the Alsea
Falls Loop of the Willamette Valley Birding Trail,
www.willamettebirding.org
The site is private land so you can't wander out into the restorations
on your own, but you can scan it from several pullouts on Bellfountain
Rd. The bittern and phalarope nests are straight out (west) from the
first pullout south of Evergreen Creek -- pretty far out but with luck
you might see or hear them flying around.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis