I spent a couple of hours in Willamette Park this morning, checking out the
migrant action. Although there was some good movement, it was mainly
restricted to just a handful of species - lots of YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS
(the vast majority were AUDUBON'S), good numbers of ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS
and RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS and several COMMON YELLOWTHROATS. Strangely, I
detected no Wilson's or Black-throated Grays. The most unusual find was a
single McGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER (FOY).
No flycatchers or vireos yet, either. At one point, I heard a series of
short, buzzy phrases from a treetop that sounded a lot like a WESTERN
TANAGER, but I never saw the bird and can't complete rule out a lazy robin.
Lingering winter birds included a couple of HERMIT THRUSHES, a FOX SPARROW
(which was singing) and a LINCOLN'S SPARROW (Lincoln's actually seem to be
moving through the area right now, so this might well have been a
northbound migrant rather than a lingerer).
The large sandbank in the river at the south end of the park hosted 6
COMMON MERGANSERS, one GREATER YELLOWLEGS and my FOY SPOTTED SANDPIPER. A
couple of OSPREYS were circling overhead.
In other news, Woodpeckers were very active this morning, with multiple
DOWNY and HAIRY WOODPECKERS, RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKERS and NORTHERN FLICKERS
around. And a WRENTIT surprised me by singing from high in tree (at least
25 feet up) - not where I usually see them.
Full list of all 52 species seen on eBird at
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S22908483
Happy migration to y'all
Hendrik
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Hendrik G. Herlyn
Corvallis, OR
*"Nature is not a place to visit. It is home." -- Gary Snyder*
