[obol] Re: CLAY-COLORED SPARROWS -- two continue at Reiling Rd. site in Washington Co.
- From: Lars Per Norgren <larspernorgren@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2015 16:13:05 -0800
The heron rookery described by Dave is on Lousignont (pronounced "loose snot"
by locals)Lake, a wetland close to a square mile in size and far removed from
public roads. I stumbled on it while doing a raptor survey for Jeff Fleischer a
few years back. A lot of parents can be seen commuting with food from Cedar
Canyon?Killin Wetland later in spring. Lars
On Feb 1, 2015, at 2:45 PM, David Irons wrote:
> Greetings All,
>
> Shawneen and I spent the morning birding the area south and west of North
> Plains in central Washington County. Our first stop was the Yellow-bellied
> Sapsucker site at the corner of Milne and Vadis roads just south of Hwy 26 at
> the Mountaindale Rd. exit. The adult female sapsucker was located fairly
> readily in a large tree (elm as I recall) along the south side of the
> property. From there, were combed back roads looking for large berry patch
> tangles similar to the one at the Reiling Rd. site. We found a couple and
> pished up large flocks of sparrows and juncos at both. The first patch, along
> Harrington Rd., had at least a dozen Lincoln's Sparrows and lots of Zonos
> (White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows).
>
> After that, we went to the site at 41195 NW Reiling Road. The two
> Clay-colored Sparrows that we found here in December during the Forest Grove
> CBC are still present. These birds were seen somewhat regularly immediately
> after their initial discovery, but I have not seen any reports since just
> after the first of the year. Today, we saw them both feeding on the ground
> together in between one of the berry rows. In addition to the Clay-coloreds,
> the Reiling Rd. site continues to have swarms of juncos and Zonos, with a few
> towhees and Song Sparrows mixed in. There are easily a couple hundred
> sparrows and juncos wintering in this berry patch. During prior visits to
> Reiling Rd. we had multiple Lincoln's Sparrows, but we saw none today.
>
> I think that the patches with heavy tangles and grass growing in between the
> rows are marionberries (someone can correct me if I'm mistaken) This sort of
> patch seems to hold far more birds than other patches of berries
> (blueberries, red raspberries etc.), which do not have the same sort of dense
> cane tangles or much vegetation on the ground in between rows. There is
> similar spot along Gillihan Loop Rd. on Sauvie Island that has always been
> productive for winter sparrows.
>
> We found another nice mixed commercial berry patch with marionberries and
> blueberries along Greenville Rd. (Tom's Berry Patch). It had about 75
> Dark-eyed Juncos and 30+ Golden-crowned Sparrows, plus a smattering of other
> sparrow species.
>
> One of our more interesting discoveries came along Kansas City Road. There is
> a spot with a big stand of oaks on the east side of the road and brushy
> overgrown fenced enclosure on the west side of the road. It's about one-half
> mile south of the intersection of Kansas City Road and Clapshaw Hill Road. If
> you look off to the west from this spot, there is a Great Blue Heron rookery
> with at least 30 nests. Today, we counted 38 Great Blue Herons in the trees
> around the nests. We also had an adult White-throated Sparrow at this spot
> and there are Acorn Woodpeckers in the stand of oaks.
>
> We went out despite the grim weather forecast. Thankfully there wasn't much
> rain.
>
> Dave Irons
> Portland, OR
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