[obol] [Fwd: Larks south of Corvallis on Saturday morning]

From: Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx>
To: Oregon Birders OnLine <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 07 Mar 2015 12:03:09 -0800
A bit more for folks who are interested in Streaked Horned Larks -- joel

-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx>
Reply-to: joel.geier@xxxxxxxx
To: MidValley Birds <birding@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Larks south of Corvallis on Saturday morning
Date: Sat, 07 Mar 2015 11:55:07 -0800

Hi all,

On my way to haul a few more boxes of Willamette Valley Birding Trail
guides to Finley NWR this morning, I took a bit of a slalom route to
check fields that seemed likely to have Horned Larks. Here's a summary
of what I found:

Llewellyn Rd: 3 HORNED LARKS singing at widely spaced locations along
the south side of the road. The one that was close enough to see through
the thin/patchy fog was a male "Streaked" Horned Lark (ssp. strigata),
not banded. Heard a few PIPITS.

Decker Rd. (easternmost half mile): WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW singing right
across the road from Muddy Creek Charter School. Two male WESTERN
MEADOWLARKS singing along with Red-winged Blackbirds from the cattails
along the swale that runs diagonally across the corner of this field. At
least half a dozen more meadowlarks feeding in fields on both sides of
road, along with 200+ American Robins.

Buchanan Rd: Two WESTERN MEADOWLARKS singing from down in grass (already
half a foot high) on east side of road, couple of others sneaking
around. Also one ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK perched to west, a TREE SWALLOW
perched near a nest box, and a pair of kestrels.

Greenberry Rd: No larks detected. 

Eureka Rd (east of Bruce Rd): Two pairs of HORNED LARKS (at least one
and probably both pairs of "Streaked" subspecies), males singing,
squabbling a bit over territory, and sticking close to females. None
were banded. I think Sally Hill reported some larks here a few weeks
ago. When I tracked down one pair with my scope after they flew together
and landed about 80 m away, the female was doing some feather
fluffing/adjustment similar to what they often do after copulation, but
I can't be positive that she wasn't just preening (would be awfully
early for copulation/nesting). Also a dozen or more PIPITS and a few
SAVANNAH SPARROWS.

Bruce Rd through Finley NWR: Lots of birders and photographers checking the 
wetlands! I
figured they were covering those pretty well, so I tried to focus on the
fields. No larks detected though about 20 PIPITS were mixed in with
ROBINS in the grass field directly south of the Mitigation Pond
(a.k.a. "the scrape").

Finley NWR headquarters area: Pair of WESTERN BLUEBIRDS trying to fend
off five or six Tree Swallows on small prairie between HQ and Woodpecker
Loop. But help is on the way! A small army of young carpenters were
hammering together nest boxes as one of several bird-related activities
for a youth event. Looks like they had a great turnout, I've never seen
so many people on the refuge.

Finley Rd: At least three WESTERN MEADOWLARKS singing (two out on
prairie south of the overlook, one to the north). No Horned Larks
detected on the conservation wetland or other fields to the N and E of
the wildlife refuge boundary. Again, I'll leave it to others to comment
on the waterfowl -- though one fun thing was watching 20 AMERICAN COOTS
traipse across the driveway of the conservation wetland.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis





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[obol] [Fwd: Larks south of Corvallis on Saturday morning]

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