Towheeblog

Any morning can bring a surprise when you start looking at the natural world. For the second morning in a row, birds presented themselves both pleasant and present. Yesterday I saw a pair of tom turkeys, introduced Wild Turkeys, native to eastern US and Mexico, and they were strutting in their machismo manner as a harbinger of the courtship season soon to start. Then this morning (no pictures) there were at least four Wilson’s Snipe at Salem’s Fairview Wetlands.

Here are those turkeys in a garden just east of the busy intersection of Commercial and Vista in south Salem.

At the south end of Minto-Brown Park: Golden-crowned Kinglets.

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A male Anna’s surveys his territory:

Male Spotted Towhee:

Creeping up the trunk:

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I did not see any Bushtits, so the title Day’s Cutest went to the chipmunks:

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Likely the two I saw were Townsend’s chipmunks. Click here for more on this species. This time of year the chipmunks eat lots of fungi, and they helpfully spread the crucial spores across the forest floor.