Yesterday
my wife accompanied me around the north part of Polk County. We had
planned to do some walking, just to get some fresh air and exercise
somewhere along the route. We first went to Monmouth to go to the
sewage lagoons, but it started raining, so we did some grocery
shopping, then headed north on Rt 99 to the junc of Perrydale Rd,
took a left, and headed back south on Livermore Rd. Since it had
rained the night before, I was hoping for some gulls at the north end
of Livermore, and there were 6. One Thayer's, one herring, and the
rest imm Glaucous Winged Gulls. There was a pair of horned larks
farther along. About a mile farther there was a field of sheep on
the east side of the road, about half of which were coralled,
assumedly getting ready to be loaded and headed for the market. I
had to admit they looked a little bedraggled in the rain as well. I
told my wife, “That is too baaaahd.” She asked my how I came up
with such off the wall stuff so often, and I told her it just came
naturally.
Farther
along was a Cooper's and a Red-shouldered Hawk. I suspect the
prairie falcon which was hanging around the southern end of Livermore
in December has moved on since I can't seem to relocate him. There
was nothing out of the ordinary at BSNWR, and not as many eagles as
the last time I was there. I think I saw 5 Bald Eagles.
After
doing some shopping in Dallas, we noted it stopped raining, so headed
back to Monmouth Sewage Lagoons to get our walk in. Since there has
been some recent discussion on OBOL about Yellow-rumped Warblers and
Pheasants, I should add that there were about 30 Yellow-rumped
Warblers, and 2 Pheasants there. Otherwise, there were no Mew Gulls,
the first time that has happened in a while. We next walked around
some side streets not far away, looking for Townsends Warblers, but
came up empty. There was a Kite near the junc of the Kings Valley
and Falls City Hwys, and I suspect this is the one that has been in
the area for the last month.
When
we got home, “our” Red-shouldered Hawk was out back. He has been
around now for some 29 months. I told my wife we ought to name him,
since it is getting inconvenient to say the 4 sylable title when we
see him, so I dubbed him “Ralph.”
Today,
since my weather aps were predicting rain for Western Oregon starting
around mid day, I got out of the house about 10:00 and started
driving some roads in the south part of the county. There was a
flock of swans along the Airlie Rd. For those of you who might want
to see Trumpeter Swans in western Oregon, the Maplegrove/Airlie Rd is
often quite reliable. The flock today was about 40 birds, and both
Tundras and Trumpeters were there. I next drove east on Simpson Rd,
stopping about a half mile in, by some bee hives, and heard a pygmy
owl tooting not too far away. This was odd, as it must have been in
a mixed forest of Maples and a few firs. While listening to it, 2
Lapland Longspurs flew over my head not 30 feet up, and one called a
couple times. A little down the road was a merlin. And a little
farther was a red-tailed hawk on the ground, not 20 feet from my
truck. He did not move when I stopped, rolled down the window and
asked him if he was hurt. He just glared at me, walked around a bit,
so after a minute I left him to himself.
Since
some of the swans had flown parallel to Simpson Road, I was wondering
where they might have gone, heading east, but never saw them, not
even along Rt 99 where they have been in the past. Maybe they went
over to Ankeny?
I
next stopped at Wendell Kreder Reservoir in Buena Vista where there
was some 300 Ring-necked Ducks. I tried to count them once, got up
to 200, and then they started to disperse around the lake, so I gave
up. There were also one Common Goldeneye and one Canvasback, both
good county birds. There were one or two Black Phoebes there as
well. It started raining by then, and the rest of the trip was
uneventful.
Bill Tice: Birding - The best excuse for getting outdoors, and avoiding chores.
