Dave and I started our 5-mile radius challenge from our house yesterday with a
bang. We pounded all day and saw 74 species, including all five species of
herons that we could possibly expect to see this year.
Koll Center Wetlands hosted all five with American Bittern being the most
unexpected and a first for us there. A photographer had asked Craig Tumer what
it was and he, in turn, let us know about it. Craig, amongst many, is also
participating in this fun challenge that Jen Sanford started several years ago.
The bittern was hunkered down along the banks in a spot that none of us would
have seen without the fellow first spotting it. He was trying to photograph the
Green Heron that was above it. We had already birded the lake and hadn’t
spotted it. It was on the west side of the lake, east of the tennis courts
close to the corner where the lake bends north. We also heard that the
Black-crowned Night-Heron had been seen within the past week at the little pond
south the lake where it has been the past few years. One had to walk in on
the path along the south edge of the pond to see it as it was NE across the
pond towards the parking lot. We couldn’t spot it at all from the parking lot
even though we knew where it was.
We also found 1-2 Swamp Sparrows in Greenway Park just north of Scholls Ferry
Road.
It was a very fun way to start the year and I am excited to see what we
discover in our local area.
Shawneen Finnegan
Beaverton, OR
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
