Towheeblog

Time start scouting for the annual Salem CBC. Our Christmas Bird Count is Dec. 17.
Today I hit the south end of Turner Road and scouted Turner Lake. A field full of robins and two merganser sp. at Turner Lake were the highlights.

One of the male Common Mergansers at Turner Lake. They are a species that often sorts into unisex flocks in winter:

Short-haul planes banned! Click here. Brilliant, too bad US doesn’t have high-speed trains.

“Santa’s Wild Home” on PBS–click here. Includes some Great Gray Owl video. Set in Lapland.

Native Americans at Fort Belknap are re-introducing prairie predators. Click here.

Americans ignore reality and continue to move in to dangerous areas. Home in the Sierra Nevada forest? Beach cottage in the Florida keys? Click here for the actuality. It would be way to much to expect for local agencies to zone some areas as “too dangerous.”

SALEM CBC AREA #1, Marion, Oregon, US
Dec 8, 2022
18 species

Mallard  30
Green-winged Teal  10
Ring-necked Duck  23
Hooded Merganser  4
Common Merganser  3
Ruddy Duck  25
Pied-billed Grebe  11
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  40
American Coot  80
Great Egret  1
Red-tailed Hawk  2
California Scrub-Jay  4
American Crow  3
American Robin  100
House Sparrow  8
Dark-eyed Junco  1
Golden-crowned Sparrow  30
Western Meadowlark  4