[birding] E.E. Wilson NW marsh shorebirds, rails, o-s flycatcher

[Joel Geier]

Hi all,

On a late morning walk through the north part of E.E. Wilson Wildlife
Area on this beautiful day, I checked for the Townsend's Solitaire that
Bill Proebsting found yesterday, but couldn't find it. Presumably it
moved on, as migrant solitaires in our area usually do.

The marsh in the northwest corner of the wildlife area had good numbers
of shorebirds today, after not much yesterday. Most of them were
dowitchers, including 52 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS and 3 SHORT-BILLED
DOWITCHERS. The latter were foraging alongside of, but slightly apart
from the rest, and were distinguishable by their somewhat brighter backs
and whitish bellies. One of them had a noticeably shorter bill than any
of the nearby Long-billed Dowitchers, but the other two would have been
hard to sort out on the basis of bill length.

55 dowitchers just might be a record for E.E. Wilson; usually it's good
luck to find a half dozen. While I was enjoying the chance to study them
through the scope, they were joined by three yellowlegs that flew in.
Two of these were GREATER YELLOWLEGS that proceeded to chase each other
noisily around the wetland for the next five minutes, but the other was
a LESSER YELLOWLEGS that foraged daintily by picking at the surface of
the water.

Also present were two SPOTTED SANDPIPERS and about five LEAST
SANDPIPERS, plus the usual KILLDEER.

SORAS and VIRGINIA RAILS were calling from all around. When I walked in
about 30 ft along the grassy trail along the berm at the north end of
the road that runs north from HQ, I heard two squeaks and stood still
for a couple of minutes until a pair of VIRGINIA RAILS came into view in
the small puddle with rushes on the east side of the berm, first
swimming on the puddle, and then probing in the mud for food (which they
seemed to be finding with good frequency, though I couldn't tell exactly
what it was). Usually I only hear these birds, or see them dashing away,
so it was fun to watch them under more relaxed conditions. When I
finally moved a couple of steps to go, they gave alarm calls.

In the same location, an OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER was flycatching from a
dead snag out in the marsh.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis