To all birders:
Tim Johnson, Kay Fagan and myself scouted Minto-Brown Island Park on
Thursday, October 29th for next Wednesday, November 4th Salem Audubon Field
Trip. We walked 3.0 miles and returned at noon.
We had a wonderful sunrise of broken clouds and light in the east sky. No
wind. Birding was good in the parking lot and we had a calling Bald Eagle
from the west river location. We scouted the oxbow and found our first
look at Dusky Geese and 2 orange collars were found. Their substantial
size, dark coloring, and their unusual loud calls with a squeaky edge were
great to re-experience since their flight to leave to their breeding
grounds early 2015.
We walked to the bridge, then took the trail east of it and enjoyed feeding
flocks at several locations. Though many of the blackberries are now
raisins, and cherry trees were gleaned, there were obvious leftovers for
flocks and canopy birds. One stop was abound with ripe choke cherry
fruit. Hawthorne berries were found untouched in comparison. Only on one
occasion did we see major ground sparrow feeding with junco and crowned and
song sparrows.
*Highlights were as follows:*
Parking Lot birding began slowly, and included a calling Bald Eagle.
The Dusky Geese were already settled into the Oxbow area as we
approached.
The Great Egret seen from the bridge is not a common sighting at the
Oxbow.
1 of the 2 The Pileated Woodpeckers was seen on a west snag at the
oxbow and bridge area.
Resident species we have missed sighting the last couple of field trips
include Red-breasted Nuthatch and Hairy Woodpecker.
Please join us at our upcoming field trips at Minto-Brown City Park on
Wednesday, November 4 at 8:00 am, meeting at Parking Lot #3 and Ankeny
Wildlife Refuge on Saturday, November 21 at 8:00 am, meeting at the
Overlook.
Barbara Dolan
42 species (+4 other taxa)
Cackling Goose (minima) 80
Canada Goose (moffitti/maxima) 6
Canada Goose (occidentalis/fulva) 120 2 with orange-red collar
American Wigeon 18
Mallard 18
duck sp. 5 flyovers looking teal size
California Quail 2
Pied-billed Grebe 4
Great Egret 1
Bald Eagle 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Glaucous-winged Gull 6-fly overs
Anna's Hummingbird 2
Belted Kingfisher 2
Downy Woodpecker 4
Northern Flicker 4
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) 5
Pileated Woodpecker 2
Hutton's Vireo 1 - Calling strongly at the brushy ditch and creek area at
the 'vireo' corner.
Steller's Jay 7
Western Scrub-Jay 3
American Crow 39
Black-capped Chickadee 22
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2
Bushtit 16
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Brown Creeper 6
Pacific Wren 11
Bewick's Wren 10
Golden-crowned Kinglet 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 6
American Robin 35
Varied Thrush 1
European Starling 33
Cedar Waxwing 42
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 2
Fox Sparrow (Sooty) 5
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) 7
White-crowned Sparrow 1
Golden-crowned Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 12
Spotted Towhee 21
House Finch 4 - On return to the parking lot
Pine Siskin 20 - At ' vireo ' corner landing on a small fir
American Goldfinch 2
