*SAS Minto-Brown Island Park Field Trip Report*
Barbara, Fred and I were joined by six other birdwatchers for our Salem
Audubon field trip today. We walked 2.4 miles around the Green Deer Loop
with a couple of stops along the slough. The weather was okay temperature
wise as it was 58 degrees at the start and 61 degrees when we finished
around 11:30 a.m. During the field trip we dealt with bouts of rain with
the heaviest rain during the last half-hour of the trip. The bird activity
was very good as noted below. We identified (seen and/or heard) a total of
37 species.
The highlights were as follows:
· We saw quite a few *Fox Sparrows (Sooty) *in the bushes along the
trail. It was nice because everyone in the group got a good look at many
of the sparrows with their dark brown head and upperparts as well as their
spotty breast;
· We also saw three *Hutton’s Vireos* in a scraggly tree off the
trail where it turns off to head toward the railroad tracks. We got very
good looks at two of the vireos. These vireos were larger than the
kinglets we saw earlier and had a thick, hooked bill. In addition, we
heard their raspy call;
· We saw numerous *Black-capped Chickadees *throughout the park that
were quite active as they foraged in the trees. As we checked the
chickadees out we noticed two *Chestnut-backed Chickadees* among them;
· We saw two *Varied Thrush *on the ground with a group of robins
along the trail near the railroad tracks;
· There were numerous *Yellow-rumped Warblers* in the trees
throughout the park. We observed both the Audubon’s and Myrtle forms of
these warblers;
· We saw two separate flocks of *Bushtits* with 30 birds in one of
the flocks;
· It was a three woodpecker day with the *Downy and Pileated
Woodpeckers *as well as the *Northern Flicker*;
· The main misses of the day were a *Bald Eagle*, *Red-breasted
Nuthatch and Golden-crowned Kinglet. *For the first time in memory we did
not observe any doves.
A complete list of today's birds follows. *Our next SAS field trips* are:
1) Fairview Wetlands on *October 15th at 5:30 p.m.* (This is a SAS-Shorts
field trip that will last about one hour). 2) Ankeny NWR on *Sunday,
October 18th at 7:00 a.m. *Meet at the Overlook off Ankeny Hill Road.
Please join us if you can.
Mike Unger
Keizer, OR
*Minto-Brown Island Park Checklist Summary for October 7, 2015*
*Identified Species: 37*
800 Cackling Goose (minima)
5 Canada Goose (moffitti/maxima)
2 Wood Duck
11 Mallard
2 Pied-billed Grebe
1 Red-tailed Hawk
2 Anna's Hummingbird
1 Belted Kingfisher
2 Downy Woodpecker
1 Northern Flicker
2 Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)
1 Pileated Woodpecker
1 American Kestrel
3 Hutton's Vireo
11 Steller's Jay
2 Western Scrub-Jay
4 American Crow
42 Black-capped Chickadee
2 Chestnut-backed Chickadee
40 Bushtit
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
3 Brown Creeper
7 Bewick's Wren
6 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
38 American Robin
2 Varied Thrush
11 European Starling
12 Cedar Waxwing
30 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
3 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's)
7 Fox Sparrow (Sooty)
11 Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)
7 White-crowned Sparrow
20 Golden-crowned Sparrow
16 Song Sparrow
13 Spotted Towhee
100 Brewer's Blackbird
3 House Finch
2 American Goldfinch
