It was our Wednesday Salem Audubon field trip. Masks, social distancing…and most the birds didn’t want to be too close to large bipedal predators anyway.
Some migrants still around, some gone, some arriving.
About: kettles of Turkey Vultures, one Green Heron.
Gone: no swallows, no Osprey, no swifts, no flycatchers.
Arriving: Lincoln’s Sparrows in a mowed field, very dark Song Sparrows from northern lattitudes. Also flock of robins likely from up north. Ruby-crowned Kinglet down from mountains.
Missing: all warblers, our fault, not theirs, I’m sure.
The Green Heron was on Duck Pond. Band-tail and lone raven were flyovers. The latter very high just as we were preparing to leave.
A HERONIC ENDEAVOR
We were braving the outside world this morning, and we found ourselves a acting heronically, in spite of …
SOME OF THE OTHERS
The four TVs roosting in a tree at mid-day? We could not figure out why they had eschewed the sunshine and the updrafts. Perhaps they had been migrating all morning and needed a noon break?
The turtle is a red-eared slider, also known as “dime store turtle” as it is present in western U.S. because people have released their pets into the wild. This one rose out of the water and climbed onto a log at Duck Pond. This slider species competes successfully with our two, smaller native turtle species in the Willamette Valley. Click here for more on this invasive.
Minto-Brown Island Park, Marion, Oregon, US
Sep 30, 2020
27 species
Canada Goose X
Mallard 1
Pied-billed Grebe 2
Band-tailed Pigeon 1
Anna’s Hummingbird 2
Great Blue Heron 4
Green Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 24
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Red-breasted Sapsucker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 5
Steller’s Jay 6
California Scrub-Jay 10
American Crow 20
Raven 1
Black-capped Chickadee 8
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Brown Creeper 2
Bewick’s Wren 1
European Starling X
American Robin 30
Cedar Waxwing 12
Lesser Goldfinch 15
Song Sparrow 20
Lincoln’s Sparrow 2
Spotted Towhee 6
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