Towheeblog

” ‘What do you like doing best in the world, Pooh?”
“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best-” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called. And then he thought that being with Christopher Robin was a very good thing to do, and having Piglet near was a very friendly thing to have; and so, when he had thought it all out, he said, “What I like best in the whole world is Me and Piglet going to see You, and You saying ‘What about a little something?’ and Me saying, ‘Well, I shouldn’t mind a little something, should you, Piglet,’ and it being a hummy sort of day outside, and birds singing’.”                                    — A. A. Milne

Blue sky.  No wind.  Temp over sixty degrees.  Sharp light from the winter sun still low in the south.  Green grass …yellow daffodils in an old dooryard… blooms on small spindly shrubs.  A brush rabbit* noshing on the fresh grass shoots.  Red-winged Blackbirds singing about their territorial assumptions in a small marsh.Two different Anna’s hummer males along the trail.Those are Golden-crowned Sparrows near the rabbit. The Red-tail and Steller’s Jay with the unmistakable profiel were at Airport Park.

Yamhill Sewage Ponds (restricted access), Yamhill, Oregon, US
Feb 25, 2016 4:00 PM – 5:20 PM.   23 species

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)  18
Wood Duck (Aix sponsa)  3
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)  15
Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata)  40
Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis)  75
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola)  25
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)  1
Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)  X
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)  9
Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna)  2
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus)  1
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)  1
Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica)  3
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)  2
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)  1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula)  2
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)  30
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)  X
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)  11
Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)  8
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)  2
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus)  2
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)  25

• *Latin name is Sylvilagus bachmani, named for the good Rev. Bachman who was helpful to J.J. Audubont hat his two daughters married Audubon’s two sons.