Paul,
Crane movements through the Willamette Valley seem to be mostly if not entirely
confined to the eastern part of the trough. In all my days of running Schwan's
routes in Yamhill County (nearly five years) I never heard or saw Sandhill
Cranes. We get birds over Portland's West Hills, probably funneling along the
north-south section of the Columbia (Woodland, WA south to Portland) and then
the flight path seems to shift east passing over Silverton, Lebanon,
Brownsville and Marcola east of Springfield. I've always presumed that cranes
move to the east side of the valley to take advantage of the combination of
thermals coming off the valley floor and the uplift over the western foothills
of the Cascades. When I lived in Eugene I would regularly see and hear cranes
over the Coburg Hills and up against the eastern edge of the valley, but rarely
had them farther to the west.
Dave Irons
Portland, OR
From: paultsullivan@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; YamhillBirders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [obol] testing an hypothesis #2
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2015 21:17:12 -0700
To test whether the reports of Sandhill Cranes migrating over Portland could be
seen in Yamhill County (where the species is really hard to find) I went to the
east end of Parrett Mt., then Chehalem Mt. from 12:25 – 3:25 this afternoon.
The vantage point has a great view of Wilsonville all the way to Mt. Hood.
Result:No cranes I’ve done a couple watches from there previously with the same
result. Carol & I did see 6 Sandhill Cranes flying over Burgerville in Newburg
on Mar. 4, 2007. Paul Sullivan
