Umpqua Birders
On Sunday after our OBA field trip. I visited a couple of nearby birding sites.
At the North Douglas Log Ponds my friends and I found a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD.
The Mockingbird was along the Railroad right-of-way, just south of Hastings
Ave in Sutherlin. So, technically just outside the SE corner of the Log Ponds
Hot Spot. It was bouncing between east and west sides of the RR tracks at the
edge of the blackberry bushes, generally keeping low.
When I first noticed it at distance, without binos, I though it might be a
Western Kingbird, due to size, perched posture at the time, and dark tail with
white outer feathers. On raising my binos I could see it was gray bellied and
backed, with white wing patches visible on the folded wing. It then flushed
showing the white patches in the wings and white other tail feather pattern
leaving no doubt. One of our party saw another time a bit closer. There were
four birders in our party that saw it perched and then fly, all concurred it
was a Northern Mockingbird. It did not vocalize when we were there.
Oh yeah, I knew I should have taken a photo ;-)…. My bad.
All the best and thank you for sharing Douglas county birds.
Ken Chamberlain
Portland, Oregon
To send a message to the list: address email to umpquabirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Account management and archives: www.umpquabirds.org/emaillist.htm
Info on birds in Douglas County: www.umpquabirds.org
