Towheeblog

One other birder and I toured the Yamhill Sewer Pond property in the cold and rain this morning.  Mostly just the cold.  Because of corona the birding class was cancelled but this was our consolation field trip of the week.  Eagles and ducks a-plenty.
I believe the Bald Eagle adults I see there often are nesting in the tall line of trees about a half mile wast of the ponds.  Wigeon are not always there and today most of the were grazing in the field just north of the ponds themselves.  All took to the air when a first-year Bald Eagle flew over.
The pair of Wood Ducks were nice to see in the thick of the dabblers and divers and general duck mayhem on the ponds.  Like the Mallards they are likely to nest locally.  It would great if there were a local nest box program to help them out.  There are many small bird nest boxes at the ponds, they get used by House Sparrows mostly.

Today’s swallows: violet-green feeding along a creek just east of the McMinnville Airport around 1pm when it wasn’t raining very hard.

MCMINNVILLE

We are loyal to our feeder birds, they return that loyalty, and then recommend our garden to their friends.  Today we reached high  numbers for the year in siskins and yellow-rumps.  Nine siskins, at least, and a dozen or more yellow-rumps.  All but one of those were myrtles.
Here a magnificent  Audubon’s, likely a male with all that bright coloring.

With the cold and wet a downy came repeatedly to our suet blocks.  The Bushtits certainly satisfied their suet addiction. So, too, the warblers.  Bewick’s Wren eagerly approaches one of the suet logs:

Mother-daughter team in our suburban garden:

A Varied Thrush, one of several, at Grenfell Park along Baker Creek Road:

URBAN EAGLE
We made a quick trip to Salem and back today.  Right across the river from downtown Salem:

THINGS BOTANICAL
Star magnolia and cherries now in full bloom.  The average peak of Washington DC’s reknowned cherry bloom is April 4.  As usual Oregon is far ahead of DC, as in so many things.  They couldn’t grow Pinot Noir back there if they tried.

 

Yamhill Sewage Ponds (restricted access), Yamhill, Oregon, US
Mar 14, 2020
20 species
Cackling Goose  40     fly over
Canada Goose  4     one pair appears to be nesting on the berm
Wood Duck  2
Northern Shoveler  60
American Wigeon  50
Mallard  4
Lesser Scaup  40
Bufflehead  60
Eurasian Collared-Dove  X
Mourning Dove  X
Killdeer  3
Bald Eagle  2
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Northern Flicker  1
American Kestrel  1
European Starling  X
American Robin  X
Song Sparrow  1
Spotted Towhee  2
Red-winged Blackbird  X