The Eugene Wednesday birding group went to the west end of Alton Baker Park
and walked to the pond near the radio towers and back along the river. The
temperature was at freezing and the fog was lifting to reveal the sun low
in the southeastern sky. Sparrows, except the song variety, were hard to
find. The garden plots were the best source of sparrows and finches.
Brown Creepers and Downy Woodpeckers were found throughout the morning. A
group of “barnyard” geese were foraging near the canal. Two could be
called Greylag, the other two were Canada-White Fronted mixes. We had a
good morning in a day that started out looking very dreary.
Canada Goose
Domestic Goose species
Wood Duck – 6 in the canal
Gadwall - 4
American Wigeon – the most common duck
Mallard
Odd other Mallards
Ring-necked Duck – only a few
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser – pairs of male and female in canal near Autzen Stadium
Pied-billed Grebe
Rock Pigeon
Glaucous-winged Gull – a few
Gull species – many flying overhead
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Bald Eagle – one flying
Red-shouldered Hawk – a beautiful adult calling repeatedly
Red-tailed Hawk
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Peregrine Falcon - one
Steller's Jay
California Scrub-Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Bushtit – two groups
Golden-crowned Kinglet – several seen
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – seen frequently
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper – this is a good place for creepers
Pacific Wren – heard only, double chip notes
Bewick's Wren
European Starling
American Robin – only three
House Finch – a couple of groups
Lesser Goldfinch – at the garden plots, two only, ought to be more
Fox Sparrow – only two all morning
Dark-eyed Junco – scattered groups
White-crowned Sparrow – a couple at the garden plots
Golden-crowned Sparrow – at the garden plots
Song Sparrow – all over
Spotted Towhee – four or five only
Townsend's Warbler – five seen, sometimes feeding on the ground
Sylvia Maulding, Rose Hammond, Magnus Persmark, Kit Larsen, Scott McNeeley,
Ellen Cantor, Judy Franzen, Jim Regali, Tom Cable, Jim Michell and Dennis
Arendt
