Towheeblog

A couple hours around Capitol Lake in north Salem this morning. An adult Bald Eagle cruised past, looking for a careless duck, then headed east. A sharpie–migrating?–passed over the treeless parking lots. Flap, flap, glide. He seemed tired, or maybe just slow after a long morning commute, heading south. #1 duck on the water now is ring-necked, which should be re-named “ring-billed” as we all know. At one point my presence alarmed a snipe and it lifted off into the usual frantic zig-zag escape flight.

The rain is bringing out the mushrooms from those millions of thirsty spores that have been waiting in the soil all summer long. The last image is a true Halloween monster or egregious proportion.

Lake Capitol, Marion, Oregon, US
Oct 25, 2022
10 species

Cackling Goose  165     fly over
Mallard  2
Ring-necked Duck  20
Ruddy Duck  9
Pied-billed Grebe  1
American Coot  14
Wilson’s Snipe  1
Sharp-shinned Hawk  1     passing overhead
Bald Eagle  1     circled the lake for possible snack, the n exited to the east
American Crow  2

ANKENY NWR

Ankeny NWR, Marion, Oregon, US
Oct 24, 2022
23 species

Cackling Goose  X
Wood Duck  1
Mallard  X
Northern Pintail  X
Green-winged Teal  X
California Quail  4
Pied-billed Grebe  1
Band-tailed Pigeon  4
Eurasian Collared-Dove  1
Mourning Dove  2
American Coot  X
Killdeer  X
Least Sandpiper  X
Long-billed Dowitcher  X
Greater Yellowlegs  X
Great Egret  1
Red-tailed Hawk  2
Northern Flicker  X
American Kestrel  1
California Scrub-Jay  X
American Crow  X
European Starling  X
American Robin  X

UPDATE on arrest of US Forest Service official in eastern Oregon. Click here.