From the west side of the Willamette Valley trough, I’d concur that southward
crane migrations most often don’t transit the Coast Range side of the valley.
Our long-passed neighbor fondly recalled them passing directly over (4 mi. due
east of Marys Peak) in his 70 year residence, but we’ve rarely seen or heard
them here. Hearing is the better detection method, and then consider the
valley fog.
Recently back from Summer Lake, we were surprised how many cranes we could
hear, gaining elevation above us on Government Harvey Pass Road on a clear day.
The few we did see would vault out of view in only a minute, though they could
still be clearly heard. Marvelous birds!
Jim Fairchild
6 mi. SW Philomath, Benton County
From: obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Alan Contreras
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2015 7:15 AM
To: llsdirons@xxxxxxx
Cc: paul sullivan; OBOL Oregon Birders Online
Subject: [obol] Re: testing an hypothesis #2
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
