July 30 at Yamhill Sewer Ponds
If you stand at any open spot around Yamhill County right now and circle the horizon, looking through binoculars you are likely to find Turkey Vultures. This hot weather often reduced the number of songbirds who are active in public, but the hot air rising makes vulture soaring so pleasant and relaxing. Imagine yourself on a rising cushion of air, bright sun, no wind, a view that goes for mile and after mile. Nohting to concern you but the next sun-baked carcass. That’s the life. At Carlton Sewer Ponds I stood on the levee and looked in a circle: four TVs. At Yamhill Sewer, only three TVs but there was also a distant adult Bald Eagle.
On the ground at the Yamhill ponds was a family of Spotted Sandpipers. Four were feeding along the edge of the liquid where it meets the levee. At the start of this month I got photos of an adult Spottie in this location. He or she was perched atop an orange portable pump, clearly on guard for the yuoungsters in the grass below. Since then the pump is gone, the levee has been mown but the youngsters asre now full sized survivors as these photos show…look, ma, no spots:
First year Califoria Gull:
Effulgent effluent, think of the colors not the content:
See the two Lesser Goldfinches in the thistles?
Yamhill Sewage Ponds (restricted access), Yamhill, Oregon, US
Jul 31, 2017 9:50 AM – 10:30 AM. 12 species
Mallard (Northern) (Anas platyrhynchos platyrhynchos/conboschas) 30
Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) 3
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) 1 adult
Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius) 5
California Gull (Larus californicus) 1
Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) X
California Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica) 3
Barn Swallow (American) (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster) X
Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) X
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 1
Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) 1
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