*SAS Minto-Brown Island Park Field Trip Report*
Barbara, Fred, Kay and I were joined by eleven (11) other birdwatchers for
the Salem Audubon field trip today. We walked 3.5 miles covering the west
side of the park including along Homestead Road (Blue Heron and Purple
Rabbit Loops). The group was met with overcast skies with some sunbreaks.
It was 53 degrees at the start and 60 degrees when we finished. The bird
activity was good overall with a total of 38 species identified (seen
and/or heard). The parking lot area had the largest number of birds as we
observed 29 species in the parking lot alone!
The highlights were as follows:
· A *Pileated Woodpecker* flew by us in Parking Lot #3. The
woodpecker continued to make its rapid “wuk” call for quite a while. The
only other woodpeckers we saw were *Northern Flickers* and some *Downy
Woodpeckers*;
· We saw some *Dusky Canada Geese* on the back ponds and flying
over us. Some of the geese had red tags on them. These are the first
duskies we’ve seen this year at the park;
· We saw lots of *American Wigeons *(100) and *Mallards *(60) with
most of them being on the back ponds;
· There were a pair of *Belted Kingfishers* we saw along the oxbow
near the bridge;
· Throughout the field trip we saw and heard lots of *Black-capped
Chickadees*. At one point along the trail leading from the parking lot to
the river we saw five (5) *Chestnut-backed Chickadees*. We also saw a
flock of *Bushtits*, some *Golden-crowned* and *Ruby-crowned Kinglets* in
the same area;
· Saw and heard a couple of *White-breasted Nuthatches* and a
couple of *Red-breasted Nuthatches*;
· We heard two *Fox Sparrows* and saw a Fox Sparrow that was quite
vocal with its smacking call;
· We did not observe any warblers or doves which was surprising.
A complete list of today's birds follows. *Our next SAS field trip is *a
SAS Shorts field trip to *Staats Lake in Keizer *on *Saturday, November
12th at 10:00 AM*. Meet at the east steps overlooking the lake. Next
major field trip is to Ankeny NWR on Wed*nesday, November 16th at 8:00 AM.
*Meet at the Overlook off of Ankeny Hill Road.
Mike Unger
Keizer, OR
*Minto-Brown Island Park Checklist Summary for November 6, 2016*
*Identified Species: 38*
400 Cackling Goose
14 Canada Goose
49 Canada Goose (occidentalis/fulva)
100 American Wigeon
60 Mallard
3 Pied-billed Grebe
2 Double-crested Cormorant
3 Great Blue Heron
1 Accipiter sp.
3 Red-tailed Hawk
1 gull sp.
5 Anna's Hummingbird
2 Belted Kingfisher
5 Downy Woodpecker
6 Northern Flicker
4 Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)
1 Pileated Woodpecker
5 Steller's Jay
11 California Scrub-Jay
7 American Crow
34 Black-capped Chickadee
10 Chestnut-backed Chickadee
32 Bushtit
2 Red-breasted Nuthatch
2 White-breasted Nuthatch
6 Brown Creeper
4 Pacific Wren
7 Bewick's Wren
4 Golden-crowned Kinglet
14 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
11 American Robin
6 European Starling
3 Fox Sparrow (Sooty)
4 Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)
7 White-crowned Sparrow
8 Golden-crowned Sparrow
11 Song Sparrow
8 Spotted Towhee
10 House Finch
1 American Goldfinch
