Towheeblog

No person claiming to be a “birder” can now drive past Eugene, Oregon, without going out to Royal Avenue on the eastern edge of Fern Ridge Reservoir.  There now a Snowy Owl is holding court daily, has been for several weeks.  It is the only known wintering Snowy in the entire state of Oregon this year, I believe.  It seems comfortable among the old tires, tree stumps and desolate dried lakebed sans lake of this droughty period. On Friday as we returned home from Portland my wife and I made the obligatory Snowy Detour.  Instinctively trying to not stand out too much the white bird had cuddled up next to the only artificial snowdrift it could find, a large prone buoy dry-docked far from the nearest remaining bit of the lake. Here is the long lonesome gravel trail that takes you out onto the mudflats where the owl has been found almost daily. Above: American Pipit on ice.  Below: Least Sandpiper happy to find the least little bit of sunmelt on the south-facing sides of the marsh plants.