Big bird of the day was my first-ever Pileated Woodpecker inside the Salem city limits. He was almost over the boundary. The dog and I heard the thumping, then saw the bird high in a cottonwood at the south end of Minot-Brown Park, along Homestead Road.
Something was in the air this morning as our garden underwent an avian avalanche. Both varieties of Yellow-rumped Warblers were present, often alongside “our” female Townsend’s. Then as I was admiring their feeding at the suet block, a bright, male Varied Thrush appeared beneath the roses. A new garden species. And this guy started leafing through the leaves, picking up and tossing aside, grabbing an occasional earthworm at the surface.
I know those eastern birders have their Blackburnian, their Prothonotary, their Painted Bunting…but, really, just as Sibley chose this guy for the front of his first western birding guide, for understates class and beauty in a small package, could you imagine better?
The smaller birds with the notched tail is a siskin in a few of the above shots.
And here is the Audubon’s Warbler alone with the suet block (all warbler shots were through a window):
Minto-Brown Island Park, Marion, Oregon, US
Jan 22, 2021 10:45 AM – 11:30 AM
Protocol: Traveling
5.0 mile(s)
17 species
Canada Goose 2
Green-winged Teal 60
Killdeer 30
Great Blue Heron 1
Bald Eagle 2
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Pileated Woodpecker 1
American Crow 2
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
European Starling X
American Robin 100
Dark-eyed Junco 10
Golden-crowned Sparrow 4
Song Sparrow 2
Spotted Towhee 2
954 Ratcliff Drive SE, Marion, Oregon, US
Jan 22, 2021 8:20 AM
Protocol: Incidental
17 species
Northern Flicker 1
California Scrub-Jay X
American Crow X
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Bewick’s Wren 1
European Starling X
Varied Thrush 1
American Robin 1
House Finch 1
Pine Siskin 30
Lesser Goldfinch 5
Dark-eyed Junco 40
Song Sparrow 1
Spotted Towhee 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3 2 myrtle, 1 Audubon’s
Townsend’s Warbler 1
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