Towheeblog

Numerous birders looking for the elusive but persisting Wood Sandpiper. Our gru pfrom Salem Audubon did NOT see the bird, byt had a good morning at Ankeny nonetheless.

Likely spooked by an eagle, all the small geese west of Pintail Marsh lifted up from the fields to the west, about 1030AM. There among all the dark Cacklers was the one snow-white Snow Goose. Other unexpected birds: Canvasback, one at Eagle Marsh and one at Pintail, 2 overhead Barn Swallows at Pintail Marsh in late morning, Purple Finches at parking lot for Rail Trail. Likely Merlin there as well. First called by another birder but the dark raptor had dropped out of the sky at high speed, zoomed past the waxwings and finches we were watching in the chokecherries and then sped away. Very merlinesque.

A GALLERY
Water and the birds it attracts. Third image shows the male Canvasback at Eagle Marsh.

All the ducks, blackbirds and shorebirds perched on logs–it is log-ical because they don’t drift out of the flock, there are simple log-istics for most of them to simply onto the log from the water.

Birds more at home on land–waxwings and Purple Finch in the chokecherry for the fruit. Our only woodpecker of the day. Four aloft, from left to right: crow, eagle #1, eagle #2, red-tail.

Ankeny NWR, Marion, Oregon, US
Oct 21, 2020
Checklist Comments:     Eagle March, Pintail Marsh, Rail Trail, Pintail Marsh–np sighting of Wood Sandpiper by our group
42 species

Snow Goose  1
Cackling Goose  3000
Canada Goose  4
Northern Shoveler  X
Gadwall  X
American Wigeon  X
Mallard  X
Northern Pintail  X
Green-winged Teal  X
Canvasback  2
Ring-necked Duck  40
Bufflehead  2
Mourning Dove  1
American Coot  X
Killdeer  X
Least Sandpiper  40
Long-billed Dowitcher  50
Greater Yellowlegs  75
Great Blue Heron  2
Great Egret  9
Northern Harrier  4
Cooper’s Hawk  1
Bald Eagle  6
Red-shouldered Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  7
Northern Flicker  1
Merlin  1
Black Phoebe  1
California Scrub-Jay  X
American Crow  X
Black-capped Chickadee  2
Barn Swallow  2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
Bewick’s Wren  2
European Starling  X
American Robin  X
Cedar Waxwing  20
Purple Finch  3
Golden-crowned Sparrow  X
Song Sparrow  X
Red-winged Blackbird  X
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1