Most of the trails are closed due to the Oak Island Marsh Restoration Project.
Most of that work has been completed and we hope to see trails open sometime in
October.
Meanwhile the Riparian Trail and the trail to the Kingfisher Marsh Shelter are
open.
I walked those trails for an hour or so this morning, ending about noon.
Overcast skies, calm, smell of landfill in the air. 60 degrees F. Saw and or
heard 23 species of birds including some notable fall arrivals.
Wilson's snipe
Golden-crowned sparrow - first of the season (FOS)
Sandhill crane - lone bird, vocalized once, appeared to be heading for a
landing in the east side of Preserve
Common raven - saw 10 cavorting over the landfill, often flying in pairs.
Black-throated gray warbler
Common yellowthroat
Pine siskin
Western tanager - thought I heard one calling, did not confirm with sighting.
Cackling Geese - flocks of 30 to 250 overhead frequently, making local
movements. They first showed up 9/16
White-breasted nuthatch
Song sparrow
Spotted towhee
Steller's jay
House finch
American goldfinch
Lesser goldfinch - feeding on the barely opened alder tree cones which have
tinnnnnny seeds
Red-winged blackbird
Black-capped chickadee
Belted kingfisher
Cedar waxwing - flock feeding on the black hawthorn berries
American crow
Mourning dove
Anna's hummingbird
Vaux's swifts have been present overhead through much of September in flocks of
50-100, foraging and moving on.
A river otter was swimming around Vic's Point when I got there.
Notable today was an absence of great blue herons and great egrets, but that
might have been due to trail restrictions. Between spring and fall, volunteer
Rick Balazs conducted a survey of nesting herons and also documented the first
nesting great egrets in the Owl Woods (north of the landfill). He got a late
start in the monitoring of the herons so his numbers of off-spring may not be
complete. Rick counted 31 occupied great blue heron nests and 47 young raised
for a total of 109 herons. He counted 5 occupied great egret nests and 20
young raised for a total of 32 great egrets.
Pacific treefrogs are hanging out on shrub leaves as well as moving around on
the ground.
Amphibians in general are on the move during the recent moisture and warm
nights and will be as long as temps don't go much below 50 F. Please keep the
eyes in your toes peeled for the amphibians using the trails!
Steve Engel, Nature Program Supervisor
City of Hillsboro Parks & Recreation
Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve
2600 SW Hillsboro Highway
Hillsboro, OR 97123
Steve.engel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
POST: Send your post to obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
JOIN OR QUIT: //www.freelists.org/list/obol
OBOL archives: www.freelists.org/archive/obol
Contact moderator: obol-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
