*SAS ANKENY NWR FIELD TRIP SUMMARY*
*April 21, 2019*
I led today's Salem Audubon birding field trip at Ankeny NWR. I was joined
by seven (7) other birders for the trip. The weather on this Easter
morning was mostly cloudy with little wind and no rain. It was 48 degrees
at the start and 52 degrees at the end of the field trip. We made four
stops around the refuge including Pintail Marsh, the Acorn Woodpecker
corner, the second pullout on Buena Vista Road just before Eagle Marsh and
Eagle Marsh. We walked around part of the perimeter of Eagle Marsh out to
Teal and Willow Marshes. We identified (saw or heard) 45 species. The one
noticeable observation was how vocal most of the birds were during our trip
with the Common Yellowthroats and Marsh Wrens being very vocal.
*Most notable sightings:*
· The sighting of the day was a *Black-necked Stilt* flying over Pintail
Marsh at close range. It was neat seeing its reddish-pink legs trailing
behind it. This is an unusual find as we usually see these stilts at
Baskett Slough NWR;
· There were 11 duck species seen during the day including two *Cinnamon
Teal*, two *Ruddy Ducks* and one *Northern Pintail*;
· There were not a lot of raptors around the refuge. We saw one
sub-adult *Bald Eagle *along the western edge of Eagle Marsh as well as two
adult Bald Eagles that flew over and scared up lots of geese. The only
other raptors were one *Red-tailed Hawk, *a *Northern Harrier* and
seven *Turkey
Vultures*;
· We saw a *Black Phoebe* along the front edge of Eagle Marsh and saw
a *Rufous
Hummingbird* down the Eagle Marsh trail just where it splits off to Teal
and Willow Marshes. We also heard an *American Bittern* along the west
side of Eagle Marsh;
· The woodpeckers were few and far between as we saw three *Downy
Woodpeckers *and heard a *Northern Flicker. *Some of the Downy Woodpeckers
were drumming on trees;
· The only warblers were the vocal Common Yellowthroats (12) that
stayed hidden, two *Yellow Warblers* that were singing and two *Orange-crowned
Warblers*. We got good looks at one of the Orange-crowned Warblers.
A complete list of today's birds follows. Our next SAS bird walk will be a
SAS-Shorts bird walk is at Fairview Wetlands on *Wednesday, April 24th at
5:30 PM.* Meet in the ODFW parking lot located at 4034 Fairview Industrial
Dr SE in Salem. The Minto-Brown Island Park bird walk is on *Wednesday,
May 1st* *at 7:00 AM. *Meet at Parking Lot #3 at the end of Minto Island
Road. Please join us if you can.
Mike Unger
Keizer, OR
*Ankeny NWR Checklist Summary for April 21, 2019*
*Number of Species: 45*
Checklists included in this summary: 4
(1): Ankeny NWR--Pintail Marsh@ 6:57 AM
(2): Corner of Ankeny Hill and Buena Vista Roads (Acorn Woodpecker corner)
@ 7:39 AM
(3): Second pullout on right side of Buena Vista Road @ 7:46 AM
(4): Ankeny NWR--Eagle Marsh @ 8:03 AM
500 Cackling Goose -- (1),(2)
4 Canada Goose -- (4)
2 Cinnamon Teal -- (4)
9 Northern Shoveler -- (3)
18 Gadwall -- (3)
25 American Wigeon -- (4)
9 Mallard -- (4)
1 Northern Pintail -- (3)
50 Green-winged Teal -- (3)
28 Ring-necked Duck -- (1),(4)
9 Lesser Scaup -- (4)
39 Bufflehead -- (1),(4)
2 Ruddy Duck -- (1)
4 Pied-billed Grebe -- (1),(4)
1 Eurasian Collared-Dove -- (1)
3 Mourning Dove -- (1),(2),(3)
1 Rufous Hummingbird -- (4)
30 American Coot -- (4)
1 Black-necked Stilt -- (1)
1 American Bittern -- (4)
1 Great Blue Heron -- (4)
7 Turkey Vulture -- (4)
1 Northern Harrier -- (2)
3 Bald Eagle -- (1),(3),(4)
1 Red-tailed Hawk -- (4)
3 Downy Woodpecker -- (4)
1 Northern Flicker -- (4)
1 woodpecker sp. -- (4)
1 Black Phoebe -- (4)
2 American Crow -- (4)
20 Tree Swallow -- (1)
7 Black-capped Chickadee -- (4)
9 Marsh Wren -- (1),(4)
2 Bewick's Wren -- (4)
2 American Robin -- (4)
14 European Starling -- (1),(2)
2 White-crowned Sparrow -- (4)
10 Golden-crowned Sparrow -- (4)
2 Savannah Sparrow -- (4)
3 Song Sparrow -- (4)
8 Spotted Towhee -- (3),(4)
38 Red-winged Blackbird -- (1),(2),(3),(4)
2 Orange-crowned Warbler -- (4)
12 Common Yellowthroat -- (3),(4)
2 Yellow Warbler -- (4)
17 Yellow-rumped Warbler -- (3),(4)
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) -- (4)
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) -- (4)
