I walked along the Salem Riverfront this morning on the CBC and it was
windy. I did not see much until a very loud and noisy Peregrine Falcon made
repeated dive bombs by the top of a large Doug fir. Over and over it
strafed that treetop there by the Center Street Bridge where a pair seems
to live at. It was the best display of this whatever it was than I have
seen before.
In all the rather cold wind the small birds were just staying out of it. I
spent an hour before I even saw any small passerine bird at all.
I met up with Jim K and Rich S in a little while and Jim started
playing with his antique red Audubon bird squeaker/whisperer and it works
way better than you might think, we were soon surrounded by both Kinglets,
Chickadees, Creepers, and so on in a riparian forest that seemed devoid of
any life at all just a few minutes earlier
Rich phoned a while ago to tell me about a Red-necked Grebe he just saw on
the slough in Salem's Minto-Brown Park. That will probably qualify as
'rare' here, and that represents some of the fun of CBCs when people bird
where they usually never do
You can see what I am saying
Roy Gerig Salem OR
