Towheeblog

Boxers may go down for the count. We birders get up for the count.  Today was the first when you could hope for a count week bird here in McMinnville; that’s one not seen on actual count day but still worth reporting.  Gyrfalcon?  American Redstart?  Harris’s Sparrow?
Every bird I saw today will surely be of a species reported, likely numerous times, on the actual count day.  Our count is Friday.

In our garden today the Bushtit arrived en masse, as always.  They watched from the hydrangea as one to three starlings raced to empty the suet log.  One brave little tyke finally flew onto the side of the log opposite the gluttonous starling that remained.  After a couple seconds the starling flew to the other side to oust the Bushtit.  People didn’t invent capitalism, starlings may have.

At Yamhill Sewer Ponds open space has suffered aggravated assault.  It has been my sad experience to notice that a certain kind of man who has a tool, must use it.  If that be a chain saw or a mowing machine, nature be damned.  At Yamhill Sewer this year all the grass and weeds have been mowed down to the ground. No weeds, no seeds. One long standing fringe of seedy, perennial weeds has actually been bull-dozed to oblivion.  Even the marsh–now watery–was mowed. Today flickers and starlings were out on the edge of the water feeding on earthworms forced to the surface. No food for sparrow or finch; no cover for snipe.

It was good to see and hear the Acorn Woodpeckers at the end of Pinot Noir. Their colony is doomed.  The city has given building permit to the land owner.  Pinot Noir will be extended northward into the open space and  most of the standing oaks will be felled to make room for ever more housing.

GALLERY

Here are the first shots from my new  camera.  The old one vanished without leaving a forwarding address.

The last pic shows three shovelers and a GW Teal.  Those specks against the blue are a flock of Cackling Geese.  The Acorn Woodpecker is at the end of Pinot Noir where the future looks grim.

820 NW 19th Street, McMinnville, Yamhill, Oregon, US

Dec 24, 2019
10 species

Eurasian Collared-Dove  X
Chestnut-backed Chickadee  3
Bushtit  25
European Starling  7
House Sparrow  X
House Finch  X
Dark-eyed Junco  30
Golden-crowned Sparrow  X
Spotted Towhee  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1

Yamhill Sewage Ponds (restricted access), Yamhill, Oregon, US
Dec 24, 2019
15 species

Canada Goose  68
Northern Shoveler  130
Green-winged Teal  3
Bufflehead  30
Mourning Dove  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Northern Flicker  3
American Kestrel  1
California Scrub-Jay  1
American Crow  4
Black-capped Chickadee  6
Golden-crowned Kinglet  2
European Starling  X
American Robin  18
Spotted Towhee  1

No Name Pond, McMinnville, OR, Yamhill, Oregon, US
Dec 24, 2019–this location is north of Baker Creek Road on private land

Canada Goose  160
Northern Shoveler  3
Mallard  40
Green-winged Teal  1
Wilson’s Snipe  15  –moving around as a flock
American Kestrel  1

Pinot Noir Drive NW, Yamhill, Oregon, US
Dec 24, 2019
9 species

Cackling Goose  200     fly over
Eurasian Collared-Dove  2
Acorn Woodpecker  8
Northern Flicker  1
American Kestrel  1
California Scrub-Jay  2
Black-capped Chickadee  6
European Starling  X
Dark-eyed Junco  11