Towheeblog

Lesser Goldfinches were making their soulful  little whistles from thickets, bare alder, berry brambles.  A Bewick’s Wren greeted our birding group with a lusty rendition of his spring song, but refused to show his eyebrow.  House Finches were singing, from treetops as required by House Finch regulations.  So it really must be almost, getting ready to be just about starting the beginning of spring.  It’s the misleadingly long days compared to five aeeks ago. The temps today did climb up above 40 I believe.  Central Point lies below 1700 feet elevation, no snow left on the ground as there is in my garden upstream in Ashland.

It was the monthly walk along the Central Point section of the Bear Creek Greenway.  More than simply riparian habitat, there are several ponds.  That means ducks.  It was at Mingus Pond some days ago I got my first Oregon Canvasbacks.  Much of that flock of dozens remain.  Ring-necked, Gadwalls, Mallards, Shoveler, Bufflehead, Green-winged teal and one Ruddy Duck were scattered along the ponds.  In the largest, Expo Pond, were a pair of Common Mergansers.  Ironically, the only ducks we saw on roiling, muddy Bear Creek were Mallards.

Three Night-herons and one Blue Heron.  Black Phoebe.  Belted Kkingfisher.  Hawk of the day: an openly perched young Cooper’s.  The whole village of Acorn Woodpeckers on and around their granary tree on the east side of the creek.  To drill, then fill a tree like that definitely takes a village.  Flickers, Downys, a lone White-breasted Nuthatch.  Nobody unusual or unexpected.  But nearly fifty species on an easy morning’s walk.  It might as well be spring.

Location:     Central Point Greenway Walk
Observation date:     2/6/08
Notes:     40 Degrees, cloudy to partly cloudy
Number of species:     50
 Canada Goose     13
 Gadwall     6
 Mallard     18
 Northern Shoveler     12
 Green-winged Teal     8
 Canvasback     25
 Ring-necked Duck     24
 Bufflehead     3
 Common Merganser     2
 Ruddy Duck     1
 Pied-billed Grebe     8
 Great Blue Heron     2
 Black-crowned Night-Heron     3
 Northern Harrier     1 (male)
 Cooper’s Hawk     1
 Red-tailed Hawk     8
American Coot     9
 Killdeer     1
 Rock Pigeon     8
 Mourning Dove     28
 Anna’s Hummingbird     7
 Belted Kingfisher     1
 Acorn Woodpecker     10
 Downy Woodpecker     5
 Northern Flicker     8
 Black Phoebe     1
 Western Scrub-Jay     15
 American Crow     1
 Common Raven     11
 Black-capped Chickadee     6
 White-breasted Nuthatch     1
 Bewick’s Wren     5, one was singing
 Ruby-crowned Kinglet     3
 Hermit Thrush     6
 American Robin     7
 Wrentit     2
 European Starling     30
 Cedar Waxwing     7
 Yellow-rumped Warbler     3
 Spotted Towhee     10
 Fox Sparrow     3
 Song Sparrow     6
 Lincoln’s Sparrow     1
 Golden-crowned Sparrow     50
 Dark-eyed Junco     21
 Red-winged Blackbird     3
 Western Meadowlark     50
 House Finch     20
 Lesser Goldfinch     29
 American Goldfinch     4

 This report was generated automatically by eBird
> v2(http://ebird.org/Klamath-Siskiyou)