Happy Halloween Birders,
The weather was fairly stormy, not many birds were present... Starting from
Ankeny, the Peregrine Falcon was perched at Pintail Marsh, but all the Egrets
were gone... Other than that we only saw a few Scrub Jays and fast windswept
individuals that could not be identified...
Continuing on Buena Vista Road toward Independence we saw a hawk (probably the
Red-tailed Hawk that patrols the Blueberry field there) chasing a group of
Killdeer and a short ways further a male Northern Harrier...
At Baskett Slough on Coville Road (I think the area is called the Narrows) 2
mature Bald Eagles (First Of Season for us) were terrorizing the ducks -
Mallards, Pintails, Green-winged Teal, one lonely Northern Shoveler... about 6
or 8 unidentified shorebirds were swimming with the ducks (as some of you know
we are both "shorebird challenged", we're guessing they were Yellowlegs or
maybe Sandpipers?)... Also spotted Canada Geese, Cackling Geese, and Brewer's
Blackbirds (one of which was having a terrible time joining his companions on
the wire due to the strong winds).
Kestrels were present all along our route, and a couple Flickers, Towhees, and
doves (mostly Eurasian Collared Doves)... On Livermore Road there was a group
of 12 or more Meadow Larks... and one Great Egret... There was also a second
flock of some type of bird about the size of the larks with a distinct flight
pattern/rhythm, we couldn't get a good look. They did seem to have a yellowish
underside while flying, but we couldn't tell if it was a second flock of larks
or something else...
Beyond the borders of Oregon... A few weeks ago we took a trip up to
Victoria/Vancouver BC... Surprisingly not as many birds as we had hoped to see,
but good numbers of the birds we did see. Along the coastline of the Victoria
area we found a group of 87 Common Mergansers, 7 Harlequin Ducks, a group of
about two dozen Black Oystercatchers (the most we have ever seen in one
group)... At the Skagit Wildlife Area near Conway, WA we saw what I would guess
to be over 2500 Snow Geese (we met some local birders there who told us the
birds had just arrived that day, it was very exciting!)...
Good Birding!Lillian
