Towheeblog

Birding Sauvie Island today I could only long for the days of flooded fields, filled ponds, marshy marshes. Not now. Sine stands of cattails are looking bereft. Despite that the cranes are as statuesque as ever; they’re bugling besting the finest trumpet solo by man; they leaps and territorial ballet as adept as evolution can impell.

Here is the nearly dry pond at Wapato–only waterfowl were mud puddle tolerant Pintails, GW Teal, Cacklers:

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Below: a gull barn roof, a female kingfisher giving us the indifferent shoulder, Snow Geese. Note the Bald Eagle nest in a bare tree at upper right hand corner of final two images–from there a mature eagle launched itself into flight and that launched thousands of geese (mostly snow a few Cackling) into the usual swirling frenzied flight over the marsh

Above: Mt. St. Helens X 3; Mt. Adams Hood.

Sauvie Island–Multnomah, Multnomah, Oregon, US
Dec 7, 2020
38 species
Snow Goose  3000
Cackling Goose  X
Canada Goose  X
Trumpeter Swan  5
Tundra Swan  X
Northern Shoveler  X
Mallard  X
Northern Pintail  X
Canvasback  X
Ring-necked Duck  X
Common Merganser
Eurasian Collared-Dove  X
Mourning Dove  1
American Coot  X
Sandhill Crane  500
Mew Gull  X
Ring-billed Gull  X
Herring Gull  X
Glaucous-winged Gull  X
Double-crested Cormorant  X
Great Blue Heron  1
Northern Harrier  2
Bald Eagle  5
Red-tailed Hawk  7
Belted Kingfisher  2
Northern Flicker  1
American Kestrel  6
Peregrine Falcon  2
Steller’s Jay  1
California Scrub-Jay  X
American Crow  15
Common Raven  2
Black-capped Chickadee  X
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
Pacific Wren  2
European Starling  X
White-crowned Sparrow  X
Golden-crowned Sparrow  X

Sauvie’s Island Lower–Columbia Cty, Columbia, Oregon, US
Dec 7, 2020 11:10 AM – 12:10 PM
Protocol: Traveling
10.0 mile(s)
22 species

Cackling Goose  X
Tundra Swan  X
Northern Shoveler  X
Gadwall  X
American Wigeon  X
Mallard  X
Common Merganser  X
Sandhill Crane  X

Ring-billed Gull  X
Glaucous-winged Gull  X
Double-crested Cormorant  X
Bald Eagle  1
Red-tailed Hawk  X
American Kestrel  X
California Scrub-Jay  X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
European Starling  X
Dark-eyed Junco  X
White-crowned Sparrow  X
Golden-crowned Sparrow  X
Song Sparrow  X