[birding] Finley Highlights

[Marcia F. Cutler]

This afternoon I met up with Jan Landau, Marie Flamme, Wanda Parrott and her friends Tasha and Blanche and spent a couple hours birding at Finley NWR.  When we drove by the scrape on Bruce Road, I saw at least 3 YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS - 1 male and 2 females.  The cattails have come in nicely and there looks to be good habitat for this species.

We got out at the bridge on Bruce Rd. over Muddy Creek and saw 2 BLACK PHOEBES.  One was carrying food and they flew under the bridge without emerging on the other side.  We speculated that they might have a nest under the bridge.

At McFadden Marsh we heard SORA and VIRGINIA RAIL.  A duck with blue wings flushed on the south side of the marsh and, lo and behold, it was actually a BLUE-WINGED TEAL!  Overall, the body was darkish, without the cinnamony tones I was expecting and there was a clear, white patch before the bill.

At the Prairie Overlook we saw a LAZULI BUNTING, WESTERN BLUEBIRD and a pair of WESTERN KINGBIRDS.  We were also treated to some interesting behavior by a COMMON YELLOWTHROAT which flew out of a thicket to our left, zipped up above and in front of us rather like a lark's courtship display, made a few short calls at the height of the display, then zipped down into a thicket on the other side of the observation platform.  I've never seen this behavior before.

Marcia F. Cutler
Corvallis