At Mill Creek Wetlands–heard and unseen as so often, a Sora in the marsh south of Hennigsen Lane and about 100 yards west of its eastern teminal cul-de-sac. In the cattails.
Hundreds of swallows–swirling, diving, coursing so fast they couldn’t be followed through binocs. Best, identifying looks came as one banked to turned, or stopped before a stoop.
“Pretty swallow once again
|Come and pass me i’ the rain
Pretty swallow why so shy
Pass again my window by…
Then again he dips his wing
In the wrinkles of the spring
The o’er the rushes flies again
And pearls roll off his back like rain…” –John Clare
This afternoon as rain squalls came past, the swallows continued flight and feeding. Bravo! For tiny tornadoes of mosquitoes and gnats circled along the marshy shoreline.
And the wind that brought the rain kept red-tails and a male harrier suspended and often sent them speeding faster than their usual flapping flight. Just obversely, a kestrel used the head wind to suspend in the air. Just hangin’:
Above: male harrier…female red-wing.
Mill Creek Wetlands, Marion, Oregon, USApr 26, 2022
20 species
Cackling Goose 120Northern Shoveler 30Gadwall 6Mallard 15Green-winged Teal 20
Sora 1American Coot 15Killdeer 1Long-billed Dowitcher 5Wilson’s Snipe 1
Northern Harrier 1Red-tailed Hawk 5American Kestrel 2
American Crow 1Tree Swallow XBarn Swallow XCliff Swallow X
European Starling XSavannah Sparrow 3Red-winged Blackbird 50
Towheeblog 
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