Towheeblog

Flickery dickery dock
the drummer runs out the clock.

THE ROOFTOP DRUMMER

This morning there was a frantic cluster for four flickers, blaming and shaming one another, chasing and flustering. They were too busy and high up in our gum tree to determine genders, but it went on for half a minute then the tussle broke up. It will get so quiet when they settle down to oerdinary things like nest building and egg incubation.

WELCOME BACK, TRAVELER
Last time I saw a white-crown here was late September. And last spring one or more were around our feeders in late March and through much of April. Most of the white-crowns passing through here breed in Alaska or northern Canada, winter in California.

JUNCO JAY persists, in our garden many times daily.

FIRST INNING–SHRIKE OUT
Nearly the first bird the dog and I found at Mill Creek Wetlands this afternoon was the shrike. The dog didn’t care, but I got this shot before the shrike dropped down into the berry brambles and became invisible. I got closer but could not re-find the shrike.

Male harrier at Mill Creek:

More from Mill Creek; there were three times as many dowitchers as I saw there earlier this month. Also plenty of VG and Tree Swallows–no pics. The coots and pintails seem to have left the area.

Many red-wings singing, even in the cold wind.

Mill Creek Wetlands, Marion, Oregon, US
Mar 20, 2022. 24 species

Cackling Goose  2350
Northern Shoveler  30
Gadwall  4
Green-winged Teal  80
Mourning Dove  6
Killdeer  1
Long-billed Dowitcher  120
Wilson’s Snipe  5
Greater Yellowlegs  1
Northern Harrier  2
Bald Eagle  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
American Kestrel  2
Northern Shrike  1
Tree Swallow  X
Violet-green Swallow  X
European Starling  X
American Robin  1
Golden-crowned Sparrow  1
Savannah Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  1
Western Meadowlark  6
Red-winged Blackbird  30
Yellow-rumped Warbler  2

954 Ratcliff Drive SE, Marion, Oregon, US
Mar 20, 2022. 18 species

Eurasian Collared-Dove  2
Mourning Dove  4
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  4
California Scrub-Jay  X
American Crow  X
Chestnut-backed Chickadee  2
Bushtit  2
House Finch  3
Pine Siskin  5
Lesser Goldfinch  12
American Goldfinch  12
Fox Sparrow  1
Dark-eyed Junco  25
White-crowned Sparrow  1-first of the year here
Golden-crowned Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1