*SAS Minto-Brown Island Park Field Trip Report*
Barbara, Fred and I were joined by 10 other birdwatchers including five
students from Jane Goodall School along with their teacher, Rachel Mitchell
for our Salem Audubon field trip today. We walked 3.8 miles covering the
west side of the park along the Purple Rabbit Loop and part of the Blue
Heron Loop. The group was met with mostly cloudy skies but there were a
few sunbreaks and only a few sprinkles. The temperature was 47 degrees at
the start and 54 degrees at the end of the field trip. The bird activity
was good overall with a total of 38 species identified (seen and/or
heard). It was a wonderful day for bird watching as noted below.
The highlights were as follows:
Everyone in the group was fortunate enough to see a *Pileated Woodpecker*
that was working on a small limb. The woodpecker was only about 25 feet
away from us and just a little above eye level;
· It was a five woodpecker day as we saw *Downy, Hairy *and*
Pileated Woodpeckers *as well as* Northern Flickers. *We only heard
the *Red-breasted
Sapsucker* near the end of the trip;
· Another exciting sight was a pair of *Red-tailed Hawks* building a
nest in a tree near Parking Lot #3. One of the hawks was carrying sticks
from another tree over to the nest;
· We saw an adult *Bald Eagle* fly near us at one point in the field
trip;
· We saw a *Sharp-shinned Hawk* along the Purple Rabbit Loop. It
was the first Sharp-shinned Hawk we have seen in a while as we mostly see
Cooper’s Hawks;
· We saw 19 *Golden-crowned Sparrows* and a *Fox Sparrow*. We also
heard another Fox Sparrow;
· There were 10 *Bewick’s Wrens* and four *Pacific Wrens* of which a
few of them gave us good looks;
· Another observation was that we heard quite a few birds singing.
Some of the sparrows and wrens were quite vocal with their songs.
A complete list of today's birds follows. *Our next SAS field trip* will
be a SAS Shorts trip at Staats Lake in Keizer on *Saturday, February 13th
at 10:00 a.m. *To get to Staats Lake from Salem, travel north on River
Road N. and proceed one block north of the Lockhaven intersection and turn
left onto Promenade Street. You should be able to park in the lots of
businesses closed for the weekend. The next major field trip is the Ankeny
NWR field trip on *Sunday, February 21st at 8:00 AM*. Meet at the Overlook
off of Ankeny Hill Road. We hope to see you there.
Mike Unger
Keizer, OR
*Minto-Brown Island Park Checklist Summary for February 4, 2016*
*Identified Species: 38*
325 Cackling Goose
3 Canada Goose
24 Canada Goose (parvipes)
25 Mallard
1 Common Merganser
2 Pied-billed Grebe
7 Double-crested Cormorant
2 Great Blue Heron
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 Bald Eagle
5 Red-tailed Hawk
12 Killdeer
1 Glaucous-winged Gull
2 Anna's Hummingbird
1 Red-breasted Sapsucker
5 Downy Woodpecker
1 Hairy Woodpecker
1 Downy/Hairy Woodpecker
2 Northern Flicker
4 Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)
1 Pileated Woodpecker -- Female
2 American Kestrel
3 Steller's Jay
4 Western Scrub-Jay
4 American Crow
36 Black-capped Chickadee
20 Bushtit
2 White-breasted Nuthatch
5 Brown Creeper
4 Pacific Wren
10 Bewick's Wren
3 Golden-crowned Kinglet
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
21 American Robin
4 European Starling
2 Fox Sparrow (Sooty)
19 Golden-crowned Sparrow
2 Song Sparrow
2 Spotted Towhee
5 House Finch
1 Lesser Goldfinch
