Towheeblog

Shorebirds, ducks and shy herons: 2, or maybe 3, bittern;  2 Green Heron. Here–Eagle Marsh:

in eclipse plumage: pintails, cinnamon teal, ruddy, ring-necked, hooded merganser, shoveler.  Pintails, naturally, were at Pintail Marsh.  Hoodies there, too, on trail along south edge of marsh which is still open.

Shorebirds: Least Sandpiper, snipe, Killdeer of course, LB Dow; both yellowlegs.  One Sora making short flight before hiding.
Many swallows aloft.  As I photographed the cryptic snipe, the swallows insisted on being in the shot–here are two.  If the first only a Barn Swallow, in the next Barn and Tree both below and nearer the camera than the obvious coot.  See the snipe?

Here is Mr. Snipe, with obvious coot as place reference.  Snipe at base of the scrubby willow:

Many zebra-marked young PB Grebes–they are known to often have two clutches per season and judging from all the visible small fry (fish) in the pools at Ankeny more young made sense in view of obvious food supply this year. Here are two of the grebelets:

Nap time on a sleepy afternoon in summer.  In middle picture the Greater Yellowlegs is to right of dowitcher sleep-

over, one Least Sandpiper at the far left end of sleep-over:

Green Heron, Greater Yellowlegs at same pond east of Eagle Marsh along the trail:

Kingfisher and to his left, a Black Phoebe in similar hunting pose:

Three Black Phoebes, molting plumage.
Here is one of the many American Goldfinches we saw and heard:

Few birders or other mammals–only one visible nutria and one mink.

FROG FACE

Please forgive the ravenous bullfrog, invasive and deadly hunter of native prey.  He, too, is victim of an even more ravenous critter, the sub-species of male Home sapiens who became the Forty-Niners and invaded California out of greed.  After the miners and those who bilked them had eaten all the native frogs, this guy’s ancestors were brought west to keep those plates of frogs’ legs filled in San Francisco eateries.  Eat and be eaten, the epic of the American bullfrog.

Ankeny NWR, Marion, Oregon, US
Aug 22, 2020
39 species

Canada Goose  X
Cinnamon Teal  X
Northern Shoveler  X
Mallard  X
Northern Pintail  X
Ring-necked Duck  2
Hooded Merganser  2
Ruddy Duck  1
Pied-billed Grebe  X
Vaux’s Swift  X
Anna’s Hummingbird  1
Sora  1
American Coot  X
Killdeer  X
Least Sandpiper  X
Long-billed Dowitcher  X
Wilson’s Snipe  1
Greater Yellowlegs  4
Lesser Yellowlegs  1
American Bittern  2
Great Blue Heron  6
Green Heron  2
Turkey Vulture  3
Northern Harrier  2
Red-shouldered Hawk  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Northern Flicker  1
Black Phoebe    3
California Scrub-Jay  1
American Crow  X
Tree Swallow  X
Barn Swallow  X
Cliff Swallow  X
European Starling  X
Lesser Goldfinch  X
American Goldfinch  X
Song Sparrow  X
Brewer’s Blackbird  2
Common Yellowthroat  1