Hi Caleb & All,
As Paul mentions, Willamette Valley dairies often have flocks of wintering
cowbirds. And Campus Way where you were walking goes past the OSU research
dairy.
In southeast Polk County, the dairy along Oak Hill Rd. near Buena Vista
regularly hosts many dozens of Brown-headed Cowbirds. For the Airlie-Albany CBC
we broke the 200 mark twice with counts of 232 and 289 around 2003-2005, and
topped 50 at least three other times. I suspect they're there in similar
numbers every year, but it takes some luck and/or patience to catch the main
flock close to the road.
Speaking of enormous flocks of agriculture-associated birds, on Sunday while
driving up to attend Ron Wyden's town hall meeting in Dallas, I noticed several
hundred Rock Pigeons spread out like plovers in the field just south of the
elevator in Rickreall. I was running late so I didn't stop to count them, but
it's the most pigeons that I've seen in a long time.
Cheers,
Joel
From: "Paul Sullivan" <paultsullivan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [obol] Re: A lot of Cowbirds--Corvallis--
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2019 20:21:33 -0800
Caleb,
A great place to look for cowbirds is in large blackbird flocks at dairies
in the Willamette Valley. I have seen a gathering of ~100 cowbirds in a
flock of 100's of blackbirds at a dairy NE of McMinnville. I keep looking
for a rusty blackbird in those flocks.
Paul Sullivan
-------------------------
Subject: A lot of Cowbirds--Corvallis
Date: Mon Jan 21 2019 21:28 pm
From: caleb AT centanni.com
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?
...
Good birding folks,
Caleb Centanni
