[obol] Washington County today -- "Harlan's" Red-tailed Hawk near Banks etc.

From: David Irons <llsdirons@xxxxxxx>
To: OBOL Oregon Birders Online <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2015 04:35:09 +0000
After being sickly for nearly a week, Shawneen and I woke up feeling a little 
better this morning, so we had to get out for some fresh air today. We did some 
car-birding out in Washington County, as neither of us had the energy for much 
walking or scope-schlepping. 

We started by checking a couple of stands of trees around the intersection of 
Milne and Vadis roads to see if we might relocate the displaced Yellow-bellied 
Sapsucker. No luck with that. As we made our way out towards the hamlet of Roy 
and the Reiling Rd. Clay-colored Sparrow spot, we checked the large flooded 
area where Harrington Rd. crosses Bledsoe Creek (about 2-2.5 miles west of the 
intersection of Milne and Harrington roads. We had 15 Greater Yellowlegs and 
two Dunlin on the mudflats around the edge of the large ponded area. This spot 
should offer good shorebirding potential over the next month so long as we 
continue to get some rain between now and then. There was mix of white-cheeked 
geese, mostly Dusky Canadas along some other dabbling ducks on the ponds.    

We had lots of raptors in the air all afternoon. Most were Red-tailed Hawks (at 
least a couple dozen) and we had quite a few Northern Harriers. While checking 
the Clay-colored Sparrow spot on Reiling Road, we had great looks at a 
dark-morph adult "Harlan's" Red-tailed Hawk that circled overhead for about ten 
minutes. It got buzzed by a Cooper's Hawk as we watched it soaring. The berry 
patch where the Clay-coloreds were is now mostly devoid of sparrows. We saw no 
juncos and only had maybe 20 crowned sparrows. No sign of the Clay-coloreds. We 
ran into little flocks of Golden-crowned Sparrows any time we stopped near a 
brush patch or hedgerow. All were in mid-molt and looking rather ratty. 

From the Reiling Rd. spot we headed over to Killin Wetlands. There were good 
numbers of ducks and geese in the west end of the wetlands (best viewed from 
Cedar Canyon Rd.), but the large open ponded area right along Hwy 6 didn't have 
much. We saw one American Bittern in flight but did not hear any "pumping." We 
also didn't hear any rails. There were lots of Tree Swallows, a handful of 
Violet-greens and lots Marsh Wrens singing. 

On the way home we made stop at Commonwealth Lake Park to get the dog a walk 
and look for a our year Green Heron. We found one heron in the beaver pond 
north of the main lake and Shawneen picked a female Eurasian Wigeon out of the 
wigeon flock. There are three very approachable Greater White-fronted Geese at 
the park. They offer a nice study in the age differences of this species. 

I put together a small gallery of photos from today. There are four shots of 
the "Harlan's" Red-tailed and a comparison of the three Greater White-fronts. 
Once in the gallery click on any photo to select it and it will become the 
larger featured photo as you switch from "gallery" to "thumbnail" view. Then 
roll your cursor over the larger feature image to see the caption. I put in 
some notes about aging Greater White-fronted Geese and some comments about the 
Harlan's Hawk. There are also photos of the Green Heron and one of several 
molting "Myrtle" Yellow-rumped Warblers that we saw at Commonwealth Lake.    

http://www.birdfellow.com/photos/gallery/945-washington-county-oregon-21-march-2015

It was nice just to be out.

Dave Irons
Portland, OR
[obol] Washington County today -- "Harlan's" Red-tailed Hawk near Banks etc.

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