The appealing sunshiny days between rains got me out to the lakes near
Cottage Grove this week finding 3 BALD EAGLEs, 66 AMERICAN WHITE
PELICANs, 106 COMMON MERGANSERs (and 3 well-dressed male HOODED), and
118 DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTs at Dorena Lake on Wednesday. A flock of
31 CACKLING GEESE were there as well as a COMMON LOON, and the 9 PINE
SISKINs (on Friday with a pair of HOUSE FINCHES) made for the 175th
species on my lifelist (closing in on 2 years of birding, yay).
3 OSPREY are still fishing at Cottage Grove Lake (have seen at least 3
there on every visit since last spring) which is now lower than I've
seen it in my 4 years here. There are at least a dozen WESTERN GREBE
there now and I found 31 AMERICAN WIGEON on the sewage pond Friday. DB
CORMORANT numbers are also increasing as well as BUFFLEHEADS with one
male spotted decked out in full breeding dress. Each shrunken lake was
down to 1 GREAT EGRET along with 1 BELTED KINGFISHER and had a combined
total of about a dozen GREAT BLUE HERONS. There were acres of mud but I
saw no peeps or shorebirds other than gulls. Mind you, I don't have a
scope so I can't see everything out there. My checklists for the lakes
are here:
Dorena Lake http://ebird.org/ebird/pnw/view/checklist?subID=S25707231
Cottage Grove Lake http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25730624
A BIG sighting at my house brought a majestic #70 to my Yard List... a
couple of resident COMMON RAVENS were making more racket than usual and
led me to discover a BALD EAGLE next door (about 100 feet away). I
suspect the gutting of a deer in the field brought the eagle here where
we normally only have hawks. I thoroughly enjoyed sitting on my deck
listening to the eagle chatter back at the ravens "awking" for over an
hour. I got one glimpse of it showing its juvenile brown head and tail
and white mottled underside.
I still have flocks of CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEEs swarming the feeders
here but oddly have not seen a single BLACK-CAPPED one here since
September! Though I haven't been out much, I have watched carefully for
a BC mixed in the flocks of CBs I keep finding everywhere with very
little luck. I found 2 BCs at the lake on Friday, so it seems to me
like the ratio is maybe 100 to 1 for CB to BC Chickadees around my
haunts. Meanwhile, another birder in the Valley told me her usual
flocks of CBs are missing this fall and, instead, the BCs are swarming
her feeders. Makes me wonder a lot about the differences between these
species.
While standing in a blackberry row birding the powerline clearing next
door, a flock of BUSHTITS were leapfrogging over one another in groups
of 5 or so and fluttered right around me as if I wasn't even there.
Another fun item for the week is I discovered that 2 or 3 of the
WRENTITs around my place are spending their days in one corner of my
brushy woods near the house. One came to me yesterday within 5 feet,
looking me over for about a minute before casually moving on.
Previously, I would most often hear them singing/calling from further
away but this morning I got to see one close to the kitchen window. I'm
getting the impression they're kind of friendly/curious/fearless like
Bushtits.
Tori Morgan
Cottage Grove
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