Towheeblog

Plus the first show of garden purple.
But let’s begin with thescsrce visitor–Mill Creek Wetlands’ Northern Shrike.

This shrike goes on strike (hides), and then at another time the birder(s) can strike it lucky. Friday Roy Gerig saw this bird. Saturday in mild weather he and several of us birders looked…no shrike to be seen. Then Roy saw it earlier this morning so when I arrived between squalls in the afternoon Roy gave me directions. There was his shrike, posing as instructed. In one shot you can the 15MPH wind from the SSW ruffling his wet feathers. In another he is singing, beyond my hearing in the loud wind through the blackberry thickets.
As recompense I later pointed out the Roughie which Toy said he’s not seen at Mill Creek this season. It is only the seconed time I’ve spotted this bird. While I watched it left its perch (before I got an image) mand then vanished down into the weeds beneath the double eagle.

GARDEN DOINGS
As I watched our our front window during a rain recess, a Cooper’s Hawk swooped past from the west, circled the house and feeders in clockwise circuit, then sped off northward after his 360.
And then for the first time this year I saw a Purple Finch in our garden. Previously I’d seen some in Polk County.

In the final shot the Purple Finch can be compared with a drab female Lesser Golfinch. The facial pattern on the purple means it is not a mature male.

954 Ratcliff Drive SE, Marion, Oregon, US
Mar 13, 2022
20 species

Wild Turkey  11
Eurasian Collared-Dove  2
Mourning Dove  2
Cooper’s Hawk  1
California Scrub-Jay  X
American Crow  X
Black-capped Chickadee  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Bewick’s Wren  1
American Robin  X
House Finch  3
Purple Finch  1
Pine Siskin  5
Lesser Goldfinch  15
American Goldfinch  8
Fox Sparrow  1
Dark-eyed Junco  30
Golden-crowned Sparrow  2
Spotted Towhee  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1

Mill Creek Wetlands, Marion, Oregon, US
Mar 13, 2022
27 species

Cackling Goose  300
Canada Goose  26
Northern Shoveler  30
Gadwall  4
Mallard  12
Green-winged Teal  80
Mourning Dove  3
Killdeer  1
Wilson’s Snipe  4
Greater Yellowlegs  3
Northern Harrier  2
Bald Eagle  2
Red-tailed Hawk  2
Rough-legged Hawk  1
American Kestrel  1
Northern Shrike  1
American Crow  2
Tree Swallow  X
Violet-green Swallow  X
European Starling  40
American Robin  4
White-crowned Sparrow  6
Savannah Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  1
Western Meadowlark  15
Red-winged Blackbird  45
Brewer’s Blackbird  1

to me