Towheeblog

My first Minto-Brown wood-pewees for the year. Two this afternoon:

Most small North American flycatchers are shy, elusive, secretive. Not the Western Wood-Pewee. This bird prefers a high perch with clear views. One was a top a forty-foot dead tree trunk with clear view in 360-degrees. While not as aggressive as a kingbird, these tykes are bold and unapoligetic. When I foun d the treetopper, he glanced down at me to confirm my complete irrelevance to his life. Soon he flew horizontally about twenty feet, gobbled something, returned to his dominant perch.

Pewees are crucial to the eco-system as they prey on insects in flight. Here’s what one website summarized of reseach into pewees’ hunting: “In the first minute 7 [insects] were taken, in the second 5, and in the third 6, or 18 in three minutes. These observations were made at 10 A. M., when the air was warm and many insects were on the wing. At 9 A. M. the next day the same perch was again watched, and 17 captures were noted In 8 minutes. This morning was much cooler than the previous one and fewer Insects were abroad. The mean of these two observations is 4 insects per minute, and if this rate is kept up for even 10 hours a day, the total is 2,400 Insects. It seems hardly possible that one bird can eat so many unless they are very small, but this bird Is rarely seen when it is not hunting. When there are young in the nest to feed, the havoc among the insects of that immediate vicinity must be something enormous.”

ALSO AT MINTO-BROWN:

The Bald Eagle and many Tree Swallows were circling far above the bare tree pewee. He didn’t care. The Bushtit nest was in deep shade. The female Hooses Merganser was in Willamette Slough as was momma Wood Duck and her ducklings, possibly six–they never stopped moving about. Bird in the blue–a Vaux’s Swift. With a hand-held mcamera without fancy software you nhave to guage where the bird is headed and try to snap just before it approaches the viewfinder’s frame. Wait until you see it and it’s gone. They are so much faster than we are. Ordinary flight for them can be 60 miles per hour and their wing-span is less than ten inches. Small, fast-moving target. And you never see one perch or hang, unless you climb into a chimney with them.

Minto-Brown Island Park, Marion, Oregon, US
May 20, 2024
17 species

Wood Duck  7     mother with six ducklings
Mallard  4
Hooded Merganser  1
Mourning Dove  1
Vaux’s Swift  1
Anna’s Hummingbird  1
Bald Eagle  1
Northern Flicker  1
Western Wood-Pewee  2
California Scrub-Jay  4
American Crow  1
Tree Swallow  16
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  2
European Starling  X
Swainson’s Thrush  1
Song Sparrow  3
Red-winged Blackbird  X