Towheeblog

Today my snipe hunting was successful.  Not like those summer camp snipe hunts when the teasing counsellors would send the campers off into the dark, chasing a vaporous myth.  Of course, I went to Linn County looking for longspurs and buntings, but the fog and the distant flocks of Horned Larks kept them out of view.

SNIPE GALLERYThis first shot was mid-morning before the ground fog burned off.

OTHER BIRDS

Earlier I had driven past a flock of Tundra swans in a field a couple miles west of 99W on Airlie Road.  I didn’t stop at Baskett Slough but the air thereabouts held up flocks of Cacklers.

The rest of these photos all came from rural roadsides southwest of Tangent in Linn County.  Pair of Kestrels, female on top of the pole:

Rough-legged Hawk in flight.  Background: sheep.

Rough-legged standing.  Forground: Killdeer.  Along Country Road south of Seward Road.Savanna Sparrow atop the local decorative, antique manure spreader.

Airlie Road, Polk, Oregon, US
Nov 29, 2015 9:00 AM – 9:10 AM.  4 species

Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus)  15
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)  1
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)  X
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)  X

Bell Plain Lane, Linn County, Linn, Oregon, US
Nov 29, 2015 11:00 AM – 11:20 AM.  9 species

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)  1
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)  5
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)  14
Wilson’s Snipe (Gallinago delicata)  22
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)  3
Common Raven (Corvus corax)  1
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)  25
Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis)  4
Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)  6

McLagan Drive, Linn, Oregon, US
Nov 29, 2015 11:10 AM – 11:20 AM.  6 species

Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)  1
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)  4
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)  X
Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis)  35
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)  X
Brewer’s Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus)  X

Country Road, Linn County, Linn, Oregon, US
Nov 29, 2015 11:45 AM – 12:15 PM.  13 species

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)  1
Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)  1
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)  1
Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus)  3
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)  100
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) (Columba livia (Feral Pigeon))  X
Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)  1
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)  2
Common Raven (Corvus corax)  1
Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris)  200
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)  X
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)  X
Brewer’s Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus)  X

Adair Pond, Benton, Oregon, US
Nov 29, 2015 2:00 PM – 2:20 PM.  9 species

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)  100
Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)  6
California Quail (Callipepla californica)  X
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus)  2
Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica)  4
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)  60
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)  40
Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)  50
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus)  6