Stirred into action to visit Grand Island in Yamhill count by recent
reports of uncommon birds there now and rarities discovered in the past;
Jill, Remy, and I made our inaugural visit late this morning.
If you want to develop your ability to bird by ear, you will be delighted
by a visit to Grand Island. The only ambient noise is birds - which is
hard to find in the neighboring greater Portland metropolitan area.
The link below adds a few pictures and a map to the already well-told story
of this area.
https://www.jack-n-jill.net/blog/2021/7/grand-island---yamhill-county
Jack Williamson
West Linn & Black Butte Ranch
On Sun, Jul 4, 2021 at 3:17 PM Jay Withgott <withgott@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi all —
RED-EYED VIREOS are breeding in the patch of mature cottonwood gallery
forest at Grand Island, Yamhill County, for at least the 9th straight year
now. I had three territorial males there on 2 July (
https://ebird.org/checklist/S91125212), and Paul Sullivan had had four at
this site a few weeks ago.
For those who do not know the area, this is the largest patch of
cottonwood forest between the Columbia River (40 miles to the north) and
Luckiamute SNA (25 miles to the south). The footpath through the forest
makes for a pleasant walk to a lovely gravel bar area along the Willamette
River. Begin at the parking pulloff at the gate across the road at:
45.112306, -123.033011 to walk the one-way trail out and back, and then
drive the rest of the road to bird the forest edge and to reach the river
by car at the official Willamette Greenway access point. On Friday morning
the most numerous bird on my list was Swainson’s Thrush, and I encountered
no other person my entire time there.
Especially good birds found at this site in the past include Ruffed Grouse
(2017, 2021; Paul Sullivan, Russ Namitz, Catherine Spaulding) and
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (2019; Bob Lockett, Ed McVicker, Don Berg).
This is roughly across the river from Willamette Mission SP, where Don
Boucher had a Red-eyed Vireo on 14 June this year.
On Friday I also made a number of other stops across eastern Yamhill
County without finding anything unusual, but a female Hooded Merganser at
the Dog Ridge WWTP ponds in Newberg seemed notable:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S91145278.
Cheers, all,
Jay Withgott
Portland
