Towheeblog

Some of us birders just can’t stay inside. So I was out birding this morning, despite strong wind gusts. The wind chill was gauged at 34. Yet, there I was, walking across open ground, eyes watering as I faced the wind. Worth it! That southerly wind may have been what delivered a handful of Tree Swallows to Mission Lake here in Salem. That’s adjacent to Lowe’s east of the airport. First swallows I’ve seen this year. eBird says there have been Tree Swallow sightings in Marion County–occasionally–since late January. Even a few Barn Swallows a few weeks back but then those sightings stopped. A distant tree swallow over the lake:

Tree Swallows are among the northernmost nesting species in the American branch of their family. They are found up to the tree line in Alaska. They are not known to cross the Bering Strait for nesting in Siberia as Sandhill Cranes do. The swallows here now may still have 2100 miles to go, and that’s in the unlikely event they fly in a straight line which would take them over the ocean to reach Nome.

There are numerous “spring” birds that have not yet been seen here in Marion County–most of the warblers (except yellow-rump, orange-crowns and Townsend’s, House Wren, the other swallows, swifts, Chipping and Lark Sparrow, Green-tailed Towhee, migrant vireos, any flycatchers except the two phoebes. No Sora, no phalaropes. There’s been a single Osprey sighting, a few TVs seen as well.

If today’s swallows were a sign of the season, so, too, are the sedentary finches in our garden. This has nothing to do with logn distance travel. It has everything to do with costume and plumage.

FURTHERMORE
Click on any image for full screen.

I notice now that whenever our lone chestnut-backed shows up, it usually coincides with the presence of the black-caps (usually two, less often a trio). The two large gulls among the loafer flock appeared to be “Olympic,” i.e. some hybrid of glaucouis-winged and western.

SUCH TWITS

Marie-Annette McCabe in rural Ashland reports on her “Twits.” a pair of courting Oak Titmouse. This is a southerly species not yet present in the Willamette Valley:
“I have met my match when it comes to twitching……..At 9:30 I was distracted by a bird in the weeping birch, his favorite tree……It was the original Twitch, the Oak Titmouse. I have lived here 12 years and I never had a titmouse couple over winter here until now. This morning one of them was oscillating back and forth, back and forth in the tree EVERY 3 SECONDS. To the right, to the left and each time doing a slight genuflection. How exhausting. This went on for a good 5 minutes. I figured he was looking for his mate and we both feared she might be dead……..On it went………….Then she FINALLY showed up!

The twitching continued as both did it and while not close to each other, they had something going on! One goes off to the feeder and back. Then the other………All this for another 20 MINUTES! I was getting so nervous and twitchy myself. I was forced to watch until the end, less I miss copulation, but I was secretly hoping they would leave and let go of my attention. Finally they left. No copulation in sight.

My conclusion: This is the right time for mating oak titmice, but this must be a young, first-time couple who obviously doesn’t have the hang of it yet! I hope they get the hang of it – and before the trees leaf out on the chance that I may see them “do it”. We need more titmice here………. I guess they do not need more voyeurs though! (I swear I did nothing to disturb them. I did not even open the door to hear their chirps so they did not know I was there!)

So it goes in nature. Having used up so much energy, I expected them back at the feeder right away, but they were occupied somewhere else and did not come back for an hour…..Go figure. No, forget it. You cannot figure Nature out…”

VAUX UPDATE
I am on Larry Schwitters’ email list for swift watchers. Here’s some of his latest info: “Most of Vaux’s Happening’s week was spent going after a population trend based on your data. We have fewer observations than eBird but a lot more swifts. We also have both North and Southbound migrations which don’t seem to have much of a relationship with each other. In the Mexican States we compared the average swifts of the most recent eBird observations with the oldest half. For Vaux’s Happening we compared each year’s average swift per observation 2008-2022. Because the project was born in Washington State we started with WA. There was one needed adjustment, take out all the zeros. Northbound WA States northbound population trend from 2008 to 2022 charted down 20%. Ouch! Southbound looked simply awful, down over 70%. I figured a major factor for that was our opening up the Oregon Rainier Riverside roost which is just a Columbia River crossing away from WA and apparently has stolen its swifts from the Monroe Wagner roost. So starting in 2018 we replaced Wagner with Riverside and……….would like to say turned Washington State positive but it didn’t. The trend still was down 20% in the last 15 years. Not good but not 70% either.

“So much for the state by state approach. Let’s use all of our North America data, knowing the Brickyards huge numbers will have a major effect. Well not going north. Should \be more of a drag then. Yup, the Vaux’s Happening northbound have swifts per observation 2008-2022 is down but “only” 8%, and has been going up since 2019 when Riverside became involved. One more chart to do. Vaux’s Happening North America swift population in the southbound migration has trended up the last 14 years. Just a little, 08%  But that’s a big deal.”

I hope to contribute to Larry’s data collection but the last known Salem chimney with swifts was at the downtown Baptist church and they capped it. Anybody know of a swift chimney in greater Salem area?

Smithsonian Zoo copes with the natural and the unnatural after a deadly event. Click here. Trigger warning–this story is beyond bounds for flamingo lovers!

SALEM CBC AREA #1, Marion, Oregon, US–Gateway Park & nearby
Mar 4, 2023
Protocol:
18 species (+3 other taxa)

Domestic goose sp. (Domestic type)  X
Cackling Goose  300
Canada Goose  15
Northern Shoveler  2
Gadwall  2
Mallard  609
Mallard (Domestic type)  12
Lesser Scaup  1
Bufflehead  3
Ruddy Duck  35
Pied-billed Grebe  2
American Coot  50
Killdeer  3
Ring-billed Gull  3
Glaucous-winged Gull  3
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid)  2
Great Egret  1
Bald Eagle  1
Tree Swallow  6     my first of this year
European Starling  1
American Robin  4

954 Ratcliff Drive SE, Marion, Oregon, US
Mar 4, 2023
21 species

Wild Turkey  17
Mourning Dove  12
Bald Eagle  1     adult, fly-over
Northern Flicker  1
California Scrub-Jay  X
American Crow  6
Black-capped Chickadee  2
Chestnut-backed Chickadee  1
Bushtit  20
European Starling  X
American Robin  50     windblown through our garden
House Finch  2
Lesser Goldfinch  3
American Goldfinch  30
Fox Sparrow  1
Dark-eyed Junco  30
Golden-crowned Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  1
Spotted Towhee  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Townsend’s Warbler  1

MALHEUR BIRDING TRIP IN MAY
I am leading a fund-raising bird trip sponsored by, and based at, the Malheur Field Station. It is May 15-20. We will see Ferruginous and Swainson’s Hawks, Prairie Falcon, Golden Eagles, White Pelicans, Short-eared and Great Horned and Burrowing Owls, Loggerhead Shrike, Sage Thrasher, Sandhill Cranes, Black Terns, Franklin’s Gulls, White-faced Ibis, Rock & Canyon Wren, Sagebrush and Brewer’s Sparrow, Cinnamon Teal, snipe, Wilson’s Phalarope, possible bittern. There are likely to be usual (Lewis’s Woodpecker, Evening Grosbeak) and unusual (any bird that migrates to northern Canada) migrants at the hotspots. We will bird the basin and foothills of Steens Mountain.
Interested? Call 541-493-2629.

PHOTO TRIP: this trip is already filled.  It’s May 31-June 4

SEPTEMBER

I am leading a fund-raising bird trip sponsored by, and based at, the Malheur Field Station. It is Sept. 8-13.   We will see Ferruginous and Swainson’s Hawks, Prairie Falcon, Golden Eagles, White Pelicans, Short-eared and Great Horned and Burrowing Owls, Sandhill Cranes, Black Terns, Franklin’s Gulls, Loggerhead Shrike, Sage Thrasher White-faced Ibis, Rock & Canyon Wren, Horned Lark, Cinnamon Teal, snipe, Wilson’s Phalarope, possible bittern. There are likely to be usual (Lewis’s Woodpecker, Evening Grosbeak) and unusual (any bird that migrates to northern Canada) migrants at the hotspots. We will bird the basin and the entire Steens Mountain Loop.
Interested? Call 541-493-2629.