[obol] Re: Benton Burrowing Owl and some Eugene yard birds
- From: Mark Nikas <elepaio@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OBOL <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 23:39:51 -0700
Oscar's report of a Burrowing Owl in Benton County is 2 weeks later than
any previous record for wintering birds in the valley and about 5 weeks
later than typical late dates. Nice find.
The bird that wintered this year near Halsey departed sometime between
March 4th and 17th. Most years wintering birds disappear in February. East
side birds often return to nesting territories in March.
I've had 50 species of birds from my yard in west Eugene the past 2 days
with 42 the count for each day. There's been a lot of turnover. Every
spring I hope to hit the magic 50 in one day but 49 has been the limit so
far. After almost 20 years here new yard birds are scarce but there's still
a few I expect sooner or later. BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON was not on that
expected list but as I stepped out the door last evening I had 1 croaking
directly overhead as it flew westbound towards Fern Ridge Res. a mile away.
A male CALLIOPE HUMMER has visited apple blossoms briefly the past 2 days
but has ignored my feeders. The wintering WHITE-THROATED SPARROW continues
and is quite late for here.
BAND-TAILED PIGEONS made an impressive showing today. They nest in the
neighborhood and first showed up last month in small numbers. Today I had
flocks of 12, 14 and 44 fly over. The group of 12 flew to a nearby butte
but the other 2 flocks continued northward. The group of 44 was quite high
- aprox. 1000' up. I'm guessing these were late migrants.
HOUSE WREN showed up today. So did House Sparrows. They nest in
neighboring barns and attempt to use my nest boxes each year but then
disappear later in summer rarely to be seen again until the following
spring. I used to think of them as a more sedentary species.
Mark Nikas
Eugene
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