Dave's observation is true for the south valley too. Cranes typically pass over
the west end of Springfield, though on one memorable occasion in my youth a
huge flock came over the UO at treetop level, bellowing and squawking. The
whole campus stopped and looked up. Small numbers stage out of Camas Swale near
Creswell.
Alan Contreras
Eugene, Oregon
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 14, 2015, at 11:43 PM, David Irons <llsdirons@xxxxxxx> wrote:
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
