Hello all,
Toughest part of today was trying to decide where to go given the coming
weather. I opted for more of a low key day in the Wilamette Valley and had
a delightful time out. Having only been here since July, it's nice being
able to pick up some easy state year birds as winter stuff rolls in.
The majority of my effort was spent at Finley NWR, where I tallied 50+
species. The highlight here was a NORTHERN SHRIKE near the Turtle Flats
area. I took a while a just enjoyed the bird, taking in some nice scope
looks and attempting a few decent pics, we'll see how the latter part
turned out. The raptors put on quite the show here too. There were at least
three PEREGRINE FALCONS at the refuge. From the prairie overlook I observed
three ROUGH-LEGGED, a couple RED-TAILED, and a single RED-SHOULDERED HAWK,
along with a NORTHERN HARRIER and AMERICAN KESTREL all at the same time.
The meadowlarks calling in the background made the scene an interesting
blend of Spring and Winter. I enjoyed getting to observe the "Dusky"
Canadas among the many many many Cackling Geese too.
I headed back toward Eugene and decided to poke around Fern Ridge for a
little before heading home. Shore Lane came through yet again for me,
always seems to be something interesting going on at that little park.
Among the many GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS, I picked out my county
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, Lane #193, hoping to hit 200 by the new year. There
was a RED-TAILED and a RED-SHOULDERED HAWK and an AMERICAN KESTREL along
Shore Lane itself near the park, and a little scoping over the very low
reservoir yielded three BALD EAGLES and a MERLIN perched on a low stump. I
wasn't going to scope originally, but I picked up on large (500+) group of
shorebirds flying, so I decided to go back a grab the scope just to check
it out. They were pretty distant so the only ones I could pick out were a
few GREATER YELLOWLEGS, 100+ BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS, and I could only make
crude estimates of the gobs of DUNLIN and LEAST SANDPIPERS. It would be fun
to take a little time to try to pick through that flock.
I checked out the area around Cantrell Road after that and came up with a
COOPER'S HAWK and three more RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS.
I didn't eBird all of the raptors along the way, but I wound up with 28
Kestrels altogether, and 77 individual raptors spread over 9 species. The
(pretty much) complete list is below.
Good birding!
Joshua Little
Number of Checklists: 8
Number of Taxa: 74
Checklists included in this summary:
(1): US-OR-Junction City-92175 Highway 99 S - 44.1644x-123.2009
Date: Nov 13, 2015, 7:09 AM
(2): William L. Finley NWR
Date: Nov 13, 2015, 7:46 AM
(3): US-OR-Junction City-27563-27617 Clear Lake Rd - 44.1068x-123.2589
Date: Nov 13, 2015, 12:27 PM
(4): Fern Ridge WMA--Shore Lane Park
Date: Nov 13, 2015, 12:40 PM
(5): US-OR-Eugene-89703-89839 Fir Butte Rd - 44.0974x-123.2397
Date: Nov 13, 2015, 1:32 PM
(6): Fern Ridge WMA--East Coyote area
Date: Nov 13, 2015, 1:54 PM
(7): US-OR-Eugene-87470-87498 Halderson Rd - 44.0376x-123.2697
Date: Nov 13, 2015, 2:01 PM
(8): Fern Ridge WMA--ODFW Headquarters
Date: Nov 13, 2015, 2:06 PM
3000 Cackling Goose -- (2),(4)
400 Canada Goose -- (2),(4)
1 Tundra Swan -- (2)
70 American Wigeon -- (2)
2750 Mallard -- (2),(4)
1 Northern Shoveler -- (2)
70 Northern Pintail -- (2),(4)
12 Green-winged Teal -- (2),(4)
4 Ring-necked Duck -- (2)
4 Common Merganser -- (4)
1 Ruddy Duck -- (2)
12 Wild Turkey -- (5)
3 Pied-billed Grebe -- (2),(4)
2 Double-crested Cormorant -- (4)
10 Great Blue Heron -- (2),(4)
16 Great Egret -- (2),(4)
1 Turkey Vulture -- (3)
6 Northern Harrier -- (2),(6)
1 Cooper's Hawk -- (7)
6 Bald Eagle -- (2),(4),(8)
6 Red-shouldered Hawk -- (2),(4),(6),(8)
15 Red-tailed Hawk -- (1),(2),(4),(7),(8)
4 Rough-legged Hawk -- (2)
4 American Coot -- (4)
100 Black-bellied Plover -- (4)
9 Greater Yellowlegs -- (2),(4)
400 Dunlin -- (4)
50 Least Sandpiper -- (4)
2 California Gull -- (4)
1 Herring Gull -- (2)
1 Glaucous-winged Gull -- (4)
6 Eurasian Collared-Dove -- (5)
3 Mourning Dove -- (2)
1 Anna's Hummingbird -- (2)
1 Belted Kingfisher -- (2)
6 Acorn Woodpecker -- (2)
1 Red-breasted Sapsucker -- (2)
4 Downy Woodpecker -- (2),(4)
14 Northern Flicker -- (2)
18 American Kestrel -- (1),(2),(4),(5)
1 Merlin -- (4)
3 Peregrine Falcon -- (2)
1 Black Phoebe -- (2)
1 Northern Shrike -- (2)
7 Steller's Jay -- (2),(4)
4 Western Scrub-Jay -- (2),(4)
27 American Crow -- (2),(4)
1 Common Raven -- (4)
14 Black-capped Chickadee -- (2),(4)
15 Bushtit -- (2)
3 Brown Creeper -- (2)
1 Marsh Wren -- (2)
8 Bewick's Wren -- (2),(4)
13 Golden-crowned Kinglet -- (2),(4)
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet -- (4)
2 Wrentit -- (2)
10 Western Bluebird -- (2)
36 American Robin -- (2),(4)
502 European Starling -- (2),(4)
25 American Pipit -- (2),(6)
6 Yellow-rumped Warbler -- (2),(7)
2 Fox Sparrow (Sooty) -- (4)
48 Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) -- (2),(4)
21 White-crowned Sparrow -- (2)
33 Golden-crowned Sparrow -- (2),(4)
1 White-throated Sparrow -- (4)
2 Savannah Sparrow -- (2)
24 Song Sparrow -- (2),(4)
13 Spotted Towhee -- (2),(4)
25 Red-winged Blackbird -- (2)
5 Western Meadowlark -- (2)
4 Brewer's Blackbird -- (2)
39 Pine Siskin -- (2),(4)
2 American Goldfinch -- (2)
This trip summary was created using the eBird app for iPhone and iPad.
See eBird
<http://help.ebird.org/customer/portal/articles/1848031-ebird-mobile-apps-overview>
for
more information.
--
Joshua Little
http://littlebirder.blogspot.com/
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/littlebirder/>
