This is an excerpt from a post I sent to OBOL on
6/19/2014 re: Great-tailed Grackle at the Cave
Jct sewage treatment plant, Illinois Valley,
Josephine Co. Unfortunately, the facility no
longer allows access to birders. Many of the
ponds are viewable (using a scope) from outside
the chainlink fence but the bad part about this
is that the decent viewing opportunity is due to
an almost total eradication of the wetlands vegetations that the site once had.
This morning (6/19/2014), we visited the Cave
Junction oxidation ponds. Great-Tailed Grackle
are still around. A male was very obvious &
vocal. The female was more cautious but we
observed her bringing food items into a thick
clump of cattail 3 times. We strongly suspect nesting.
Other birds at the Cave Jct plant included Wood
Duck and Mallard w/ young, Green Heron, (2)
Pied-Billed Grebe, Black Phoebe with youngsters
on nest (on side of a building).
At 10:17 AM 1/11/2019, Alan Contreras wrote:
Gt Grackle has also bred lately near Grants
Pass, I think. The Ontario colony seems to be
year-round and self-sustaining now.
I have not looked at count data but I think both
Acorn Woodpecker and WB Nuthatch are down in
Lane County from 1970s levels. Western Bluebirds
are way up in all of western Oregon, owing at
least in part to the bluebird trail projects
conducted by Elsie Eltzroth, Hubert Prescott and Al Prigge in the 1970s-80s.
Alan Contreras
<mailto:acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx>acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
Eugene, Oregon
<http://www.alanlcontreras.com>www.alanlcontreras.com
http://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/edge-of-awe
On Jan 11, 2019, at 10:06 AM, Wayne Weber
<<mailto:contopus@xxxxxxxxx>contopus@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Oregon birders,
Nearly all the bird species mentioned by Joel
and Harry are stereotypical California
species-- species which breed through much or
most of California, and have done at least
since the earliest ornithological explorations.
However, one of these, the Great-tailed
Grackle, is a newcomer even to California. The
first record of Great-tailed Grackle in
California was in the Colorado River Valley in
1964. When I made my first visit to that part
of California in 1970 (near Imperial Dam), I
was highly surprised to find Great-tailed
Grackles there. None of the bird-finding guides
or standard ornithological references indicated
that they should be there. This species has had
a much bigger range expansion than the other ones mentioned.
The regular occurrence of Great-tailed Grackles
in Oregon is quite recentrecent enough that I
have not yet seen one in Oregon! It appears
that they may be breeding in Malheur County in
the southeast as well as in Jackson County.
(Yes, Iâve seen GTGR both in BC and in
Washington, but they sure donât breed there!)
One of my priorities for 2019 is to finally add GTGR to my Oregon state list.
All this just goes to emphasize how dynamic
bird populations are, with never-ending changes
in breeding (and wintering) ranges. There have
been some major range contractions as well,
such as Western Bluebird (disappeared from all
of southwestern BC and much of western WA),
California Condor, and Yellow-billed Cuckoo.
The longer you watch birds, the more things change.
Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC, Canada
<mailto:contopus@xxxxxxxxx>contopus@xxxxxxxxx
From:
<mailto:obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[<mailto:obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>mailto:obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Harry Fuller
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2019 7:57 AM
To: <mailto:clearwater@xxxxxxxx>clearwater@xxxxxxxx
Cc: Midvalley Birding Midvalley; OBOL
Subject: [obol] Re: Nice January walk in California? No, Polk County, Oregon
Other birds coming up from the south:
Great-tailed Grackle now nest in Jackson County
as do Mockingbirds and White-tailed Kites. The
California Towhee, Wrentit and Oak Titmouse are
well-established there as well as breeding BG
Gnatcatchers...I suspect many of these species
move up the coast first and then follow rivers
inland...not coming over the 4300 foot high
Siskiyou Pass...but once in the Rogue or Umpqua
or Willamette Valley they should
thrive. Nuttall's may have a harder time
because it is highly dependent on oaks and
cottonwoods, not common along the coast or in
Siskiyou and Modoc Counties on the northern Cal
border. THere is some suspicion but no proof
yet that Cak Thrashers are also breeding in
Jackson County. I am currently working on an
update to a federal publication of 1975, Birds
of Jackson County...two major trends stand out:
1) we know a hell of a lot more about birds
there now (i.e. where the Great Grays and
Spotted Owls nest), 2) several species have
moved north and gotten established...I've seen
Red-shouldered Hawks as high as 4500'
elevation...Anna's Hummingbird in 1975 was
considered a rare summer visitor, now males
stay year round along with s few females who don't migrate out.
In 1975 there had been no record of even a
sighting of Red-shoulder or kite in Jackson County!
On Fri, Jan 11, 2019 at 5:21 AM
<<mailto:clearwater@xxxxxxxx>clearwater@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi all,
Yesterday afternoon I was out for a stroll
through vineyards and and oak woods on a small
winery between Dallas and Monmouth, in sunshine and pleasant 50 F temperatures.
A RED-SHOULDERED HAWK was sneaking around the woods along a small creek.
A BLACK PHOEBE was chirping and catching insects around the barn.
I heard ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRDS grinding away at
their song, at three different spots along the walk.
Two or three decades ago, all three of these
species were more associated with northern
California and the southwest corner of Oregon.
Now they are part of our regular local avifauna in the mid-Willamette Valley.
Turkey Vultures have also become a frequent
though still uncommon sight on warm, sunny
days in winter, and Acorn Woodpeckers colonies
are widespread. We're still missing Nuttall's
Woodpecker, Oak Titmouse, and California Towhee, at least for the time being.
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
--
Harry Fuller
author of: San Francisco's Natural History: Sand Dunes to Streetcars:
<https://ecowise.wordpress.com/2017/04/20/sfnh/>https://ecowise.wordpress.com/2017/04/20/sfnh/
author of Great Gray Owls of CA-OR-WA:
<https://ecowise.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/the-great-gray-owl-book/>https://ecowise.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/the-great-gray-owl-book/
author of Freeway Birding: <http://freewaybirding.com/>freewaybirding.com
birding website: <http://www.towhee.net/>http://www.towhee.net
my birding blog: <http://atowhee.wordpress.com/>atowhee.wordpress.com
