[birding] corvallis area

[rich armstrong]

1. mary garrard, tristen, adam raymond, & i did sort of a double field trip all day today.
2. we began at my house in north corvallis with 6 WESTERN TANAGER & 1 BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER in our yard.
3. then behind forest dell park where mary had found a couple OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHERS. we found 1 posing nicely.
4. then up to the fairchild's in the foothills southwest of philomath. 
    a. HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER - sang a little, showed itself a little, perched but way at top of conifer for mediocre scope views
    b. PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS calling at a distance - not cooperative at all.
    c. OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHERS doing the quick-3-beers call.
    d. MACGUILLEVRAY'S WARBLERS - very cooperative & close 
    e. WESTERN WOOD PEWEE calling (saw many later at e e wilson)
    f. HERMIT WARBLERS - many of them
    g. BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK singing everywhere
    h. and at their house violet-green & tree swallows & house wren & western bluebirds all at their boxes, purple finches, american goldfinches, rufous hummingbirds, evening grosbeak, band-tailed pigeons at the feeders, a red-breasted sapsucker in a tree, and western tanagers moving around. and california quail at base of driveway.
    i. a couple heard a distant call of a MOUNTAIN QUAIL
5. philomath poo ponds had a smattering of ducks with 1 pintail, 1 lesser scaup, couple wood ducks, few shovelers, and few wigeon. there were at least 10 SPOTTED SANDPIPERS. also a couple bald eagles and a harrier.
6. doug robinson told us he had seen 2 WHITE PELICANS at cabell so we stopped there and saw 1 very nicely from the gazebo. doug also reported 2 WILSON'S PHALAROPES way in the back of cabell toward pigeon butte, but we did not have time to look for those.
7. prairie overlook had singing and posing LAZULI BUNTING, singing meadowlarks but we saw none, and we did not find a kingbird.
8. bruce road mcfaddin had 2 LESSER YELLOWLEGS and 1 greater that were hard to see over the getting taller grass. we walked all the way out the mcfaddin trail seeing many wood ducks and finally saw a male BLUE-WINGED TEAL at a great distance. there was a female with it but no idea if it was blue-winged or 1 of the many cinamon teal.
9. bruce road scrape had the male YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, and there were 2 females. maybe he will stay this year?
10. we dropped mary off at home and started field trip 2. at peavy aboretum we could not find a cassin's vireo, but we saw a PILEATED WOODPECKER 1 foot off the groud about 30 feet away working a stump.
11. we wanted to go to the e e wilson northwest corner wetland, but we were too tired to walk the 2+ mile round trip. however, we parked right at where robison road and 99 meet. there is a path going into e e wilson that is easily passable now (although many pricker bushes). it goes maybe 1/8 mile and gets to the northwest road within maybe 1/8 mile from the corner marsh. so if you want to save a lot of walking you can do this. there wasn't much on the marsh but excellent variety.
    a. there was a pair of BLUE-WINGED TEAL extremely close making up for the distant views at finley.
    b. although there were only 6 shorebirds (not counting killdeer) they were excellent - a very close SOLITARY SANDPIPER loafing on a little log, a close spotted sandpiper, 3 dowichers that let us study them as 2 LONG-BILLED DOWICHERS & 1 SHORT-BILLED DOWICHER (mostly resting so we could study color, belly, flanks, scapulars), and 1 very distant yellowlegs.
    c. walking back we heard a YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT, but could not get it to come out, saw a very cooperative WRENTIT, and studied some pewees we couldn't make into anything else.
12. since joel geier had reported an oriole south of robison road we parked at coffin butte and walked in and to the north. another LAZULI BUNTING was singing, and then right at the private property line we saw a male BULLOCK'S ORIOLE not very cooperatively. there may have been a female there as well, but we didn't want to go on the property. since someone told me they may have nested on coffin butte last year maybe they are going to nest in that area.
13. a beautiful day and a good variety of birds.
Rich Armstrong
541-753-1978
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