Jeff Fleischer found a Lewis's Woodpecker on the 14th while doing his
raptor route south of Brownsville. The site was in my area of yesterday's
Brownsville CBC so I made an effort to relocate the bird. I found a flock
of 12 LEWOs at the spot. The location is east of Gap Rd about 1/4 mile
south of its intersection with Diamond Hill Rd.
The birds were flycatching from oaks and firs about 200 yards east of the
road across the large field there. Jeff's bird I believe was seen atop a
dead tree in the middle of the field. I probably would have missed the
birds if I hadn't been looking specifically. They were view-able with
binoculars but a scope helps greatly for good looks. Another LEWO was
found on the count on Washburn Heights north of Brownsville.
When I observed the 12 birds (and there could well have been more) they
were flycatching under sunny blue skies. I stopped at the site later in the
afternoon when the sky had become overcast and could find none of the
woodpeckers. I'm sure they didn't all just move on but the sunny skies
seemed to get the birds very active and more visible.
My high count for west side LEWOs before this was 2 at a time. I don't
recall hearing of such a large group in western Oregon. Does anybody know
of flocks seen before?
I had 2 different Say's Phoebe in my sector plus at least 1 more was
reported on the count. Additional birds outside the count circle recently
have been reported from Ward Butte and near Albany. It seems Says are
becoming much more regular the past few winters in the southern Valley at
least.
Good weather and about a 50% increase in participants made for an above
average species count. We had 105 species compared to 95 last year and
not all reports are not in yet. We have had higher species counts before
but it seems like it's been awhile.
Mark Nikas
