[obol] Possible Rusty Blackbird (heard only), E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area
- From: Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx>
- To: MidValley Birds <birding@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 13:50:05 -0700
Hi all,
This morning, on a quick walk at E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area just as the
sun was coming out, I heard a song that at first had me thinking of a
Sooty Fox Sparrow in terms of pitch (there have been quite a few singing
this month), but the cadence was strange and it seemed to be coming from
up in a stand of Oregon ash and cottonwoods -- higher up than I'd expect
to hear a Fox Sparrow.
My second thought was a Starling imitating a Fox Sparrow, since that
grove of trees often gets starlings that are better-than-average mimics
(of Sora and the like). But the song was repeated numerous times, each
time identical, without any starling-like phrases or improvisations
thrown in. Also it was moving along through the trees at intervals.
The main phrase that I kept hearing was "ee-o-weee!" falling on the
second note, then rising emphatically, on the third, and with the hint
of a fourth short note dropping at the end. I heard it 10, maybe 12
times altogether, with perhaps 10-15 seconds between each repetition.
The third thought that came to mind for such a high-pitched song was
warbler -- and there were a ton of Yellow-rumps moving around so it
would have been easy for a warbler to be moving with them -- but it was
certainly not any warbler that I recognized.
There were a *lot* of birds in the area, all very active so it was hard
to keep track of everything. Whatever it was finally moved off to
another clump of trees to the south, and after singing a few more times
from , then stopped singing.
Thinking how to describe the song, the first thing that came to mind was
the "ee-o-LAY" phrase of Eastern Meadowlark. But it didn't sound quite
like that either.
After I got home I ran through a bunch of warbler songs before I hit on
RUSTY BLACKBIRD -- bingo! The habitat seems reasonable -- wet woods. But
without a visual, I think it seems best to leave this as a "possible"
unless someone else can relocate the bird.
The location was in the SW part of E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area, along the
road that runs south from the skeet range (off of Camp Adair Rd.). Where
I first heard the bird was about 1/3 mile south of Camp Adair Rd, in the
trees alongside the powerline. Where I last heard it was about 300 yards
to the south of the initial location. If it kept moving, it would be in
Adair Village by now.
Happy birding,
Joel
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
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