Birders,
After nailing both the Common Scoter at Taft and the White-winged Dove at
Yachats (hooray!) the day before, I decide to do some birding yesterday to
try to augment my rather meager Benton County list. I visited the Philomath
Poo Ponds in early afternoon in hopes of finding Red Phalaropes. No luck,
even though there had been 120 there on Tuesday and 35 on Wednesday. There
were scads of ducks though, including about 140 BUFFLEHEADS, and one each of
RUDDY DUCK and CANVASBACK.
I then decided to spend the rest of the afternoon birding the Finley NWR. I
birded first along Bruce Road, then later along Finley Road and the Cabell
Marsh. McFadden Marsh on Bruce Road was full of waterfowl, including 34
TUNDRA SWANS and hundreds of NORTHERN PINTAILS, MALLARDS, and CACKLING
GEESE. I also found 7 RED PHALAROPES, but not at McFadden Marsh. These were
at a flooded field just W of McFadden Marsh (on the opposite side of Muddy
Creek), on the north side of Bruce Road, with about 200 ducks. They were
about 200 to 300 yards from the road, but easily identified and studied with
a scope.
According to eBird, 2 Red Phalaropes were seen on November 12 by Dena Turner
at Finley, but not at the same spot. These were seen at Scrape Pond, which I
understand is the small wetland right next to Bruce Road a little farther
west. At any rate, it may still be worth looking for Red Phalaropes at and
near Finley during the next few days.
I also found Red Phalaropes at 2 locations in Lincoln County- 20 at the
south end of Siletz Bay on Nov. 18, and 4 in the channel from the Yaquina
Bay south jetty in Newport on the morning on Nov. 19. However, they are much
more expected at coastal location. This has been quite the inland invasion
of Red Phalaropes, and I'm glad that I got to see some.
Good luck and good birding,
Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus@xxxxxxxxx
(back in Canada now)
