Fern Ridge did not reach full pool this year - about a foot to 1.5 feet low,
give or take, so grebe nesting areas around Gibson Island are mostly dry and
grebes are somewhat more visible and perhaps in new areas.
If the lake stays low we may have some great early-season shorebird habitat at
Royal Ave. and the pipit zone may be active weeks earlier than usual.
Alan Contreras
Eugene, Oregon
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
www.alanlcontreras.com
On Jun 17, 2020, at 1:20 PM, clearwater@xxxxxxxx wrote:
This morning around 7 am I heard a WILSON'S SNIPE was winnowing over the
South Coyote Creek unit of Fern Ridge Wildlife Management Area, off of
Halderson Road west of Eugene.
A little later I had one fly about 30 feet over me as I crossed through a
wetland on the other side of the area (about a quarter mile from where I'd
heard one winnowing). That bird gave a series of monotonous "nuk ... nuk ...
nuk ... nuk " calls which were new for my experience with this species. It
flew onward over some tree to the east (private land past where Halderson
dead-ends, perhaps viewable from Crow Road if you come in from Green Hill)
and seemed to make a wide loop behind the trees.
Also perhaps of interest, on Sunday, June 14 a pair of WESTERN GREBES were in
courtship display on the South Marsh part of Fern Ridge Reservoir, where Hwy
126 goes over the causeway that cuts across the wetlands, just east of
Veneta. They were swimming and bobbing their necks in unison as I drove over
the causeway. Some people standing beside their vehicles in the parking area
just past the causeway could have had a good view, if they were paying
attention, but seemingly they weren't.
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
