[obol] Fern Ridge birds
- From: Alan Contreras <acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OBOL <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2014 13:44:00 -0700
Goose season of some kind started at Fern Ridge this morning, so the birding
was a little noisier than usual, but shorebirds were varied. I got there a
little late (8:00) and met Vjera Thompson, Stephan Nance, Adam Caswell and
another birder whose name I have spaced.
Also met a number of hunters, a dog-walker and a friendly Oregon State Police
game enforcement officer. And yeah, he was demonstrably enforcing way out on
the dikes, nice to see.
Highlights include SEVEN avocets (that's the most I have seen together in
western Oregon to my recollection), a Baird's, a rather brown Black-bellied
Plover that had me overheated for a moment, 27 Caspians, the continuing
Franklin's Gull. Other standard-model shorebirds were present in modest
numbers. Lots of Western Sands.
Of note is that we saw no Black-necked Stilts. The lake is low enough now that
they could be elsewhere.
A Black-crowned Night-Heron was flying around now and then.
My first pipit of the season went over as we were leaving.
Odd sight of the day: Steller's Jay flying across the marsh north of Royal,
landing in an isolated willow tree. Weird place to stash a nut.
Vjera can add anything of note that I forgot.
.
.
Alan Contreras
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
Eugene, Oregon
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