Hi all,
Today while walking out to the Irish Bend Covered Bridge on Campus Way west
of the OSU Campus, I saw something I've never seen before. In the distant
Starling/Blackbird/Robin flock, which typically contains many Brewer's
Blackbirds, a few Red-wings, and no other icterids, I started noticing
small, short-billed birds. I initially wrote them off as Brewer's
Blackbirds at weird angles, because there were at least five and I assumed
that this was too many Cowbirds to be in one place in the Valley in the
winter. I then noticed some much closer birds in an Ash tree, and as I
studied them I was surprised to find that at least five were Cowbirds.
Turning attention back to the larger flock, now closer in the grass, I
realized that a significant portion of the blackbirds present appeared to
be male Cowbirds. In the next few minutes I estimated at least 30 in total,
way more than I've ever heard of in the valley in January. Does anyone have
input on how unusual this is?
Campus Way between 35th and 53rd Streets is becoming one of my favorite
patches. Today I had 39 species in total. Here are some other fun ones:
Savannah Sparrow-1
Marsh Wren-1
Black Phoebe-1
Western Meadowlark-14
Lincoln's Sparrow-2
In addition, I saw a fully dark-morph Red-tailed Hawk, which I've rarely
had in Western Oregon.
Good birding folks,
Caleb Centanni
