I had a chance to do a bit of birding this past week while working in
Hermiston. I have attached a sample of photos taken between Wed evening and
yesterday. Highlights were 4 Short-eared Owls, 3 Long-billed Curlews, a
Yellow-breasted Chat (which is supposedly very uncommon in Umatilla County, and
a Bonaparte’s gull which is a life bird for me. I also found a Black-billed
Magpie that was missing its tail, but I was too slow with my camera to take a
photo. It seemed otherwise healthy and didn’t seem to have any issue flying,
however I presume it’s maneuverability is not as good as its peers. I also
photographed a deer at McNary Dam that had patchy hair loss all over its body
and face. I googled hair loss in deer and there are a bunch of articles and
photos of what’s called Deer Hair-loss Syndrome, caused by an exotic non-native
lice that is so irritating the they rub their hair down to its skin. On line
it said to report it to OFWS which I did. They said this is so common now in
Oregon that they no longer do anything about it. It was with a few other
healthy looking deer. I also included a few other mammal photos.
Tim Kadlecek
Portland
https://flic.kr/s/aHskwgLrEs
