Towheeblog

The hope was to find Paul Sullivan’s elusive Red-eyed Vireo.  It would have been a county life bird for me.  Nada.  But lots of Swainson’s Thrushes and Black-headed Grosbeaks singing in the forest.  No mosquitoes to compensate for no vireo found.

We had a young Bald Eagle fly low over our heads as we stood on the bank of the Willamette.  Three active Osprey nests.  Waxwings fly-catching over the river, their colors glowing in the sun.DON’T CLEAR CUT THE BLACKBERRIES

I understand the desire to do native plant restoration.  Yet the way it is often done starts with a clear-cut of existing plants, sometimes even the use of Round-up. I know Himalyan blackberries are viewed as the starling of the plant world, too strong, too invasive, too successful…but the birds and mammals and insects that live in and around it, that hide under it, that feed on it…they don’t care.  Look at these butterfly images, a gorgeous swallowtail feeding on blackberry nectar, even though there were other, native flowers in bloom nearby.I know clear-cutting the blackberries may be time and money efficient but it is terribly destructive to the many critters inside the thickets.  The newly planted natives will take years to become a similar source of protection and food.  So restoration is best done in stages, leaving some of the hated blackberries in place for the animals already living there.

SE Grand Island Loop, Yamhill, Oregon, US
Jun 25, 2018.  18 species

Great Blue Heron (Blue form) (Ardea herodias [herodias Group])  3
Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)  1
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)  5     three active nests, two nestlings seen
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)  1     first year bird
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)  1
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)  2
Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber)  1
California Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica)  2
Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota)  X
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)  25
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)  X
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)  6
Yellow Warbler (Northern) (Setophaga petechia [aestiva Group])  1     heard only
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)  X
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus)  X
Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus)  X
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)  X
American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)  X