Towheeblog

The various sparrows and Varied Thrush were obviously happy today. No rain, just a few small puddles for convenient bath or beaker of water. After I finished with a round of garden chores this afternoon, and retreated indoors, the ground feeders immediately got to work. On one small bare patch with scattered seed I saw three thrushes, both Fox Sparrows and a golden-crown. Over the day I saw all six likely sparrow species–including our local pair of towhee, dozens of juncos, and two species that have been scarce recently–the song and the white-throat. Maybe during spring migration we’ll get a brief visit from a chipping, Lincoln’s or white-crowned but today’s six species are the only ones we expect this time of year.* Here is a fine white-throat shot contributed by Albert Ryckman:

RIVERFRONT PARK
At Riverfront this morning, an eagle was on the nest. Could be hatchlings this month.
The river, the slough and Pringle Creek all had very high water. It was up into the “shoreline” brush on Minto-Brown Island. The usual sandbars were submerged. The very muddy water must make fishing difficult for some–the kingfisher was gone, maybe off to a still, clear reservoir? One cormorant was in the slough but could it possibly see a fish in that mud?
Plenty of floating plastic trash had been washed off the embankments and was dfloated downstream

GLORIOUS GALLERY
First some more fine fotos of smaller birds from their loving friend, Mr. Ryckman:

The different angles on the hummer shots illustrate how mutable the visual impression of the bird’s coloring can be. Iridescence, angle & sunlight produce coloration that can be momentarily unique and varied and unrecoverable.

Here are a series of peregrine shots by Philip Pessereau. The bird was along Livermore Road north of Baskett Slough–likely that missing feather due to some occurence during molting season, can make flight harder to control because of imbalance.

HEAR, HEAR
The flicker in our garden was loudly broadcasting is sequence of rapid spring calls. A hormonal harmony if ever there were.

954 Ratcliff Drive SE, Marion, Oregon, US
Mar 14, 2023
19 species

Mourning Dove  6
Northern Flicker  1
Steller’s Jay  1
California Scrub-Jay  4
American Crow  X
Black-capped Chickadee  2
Bushtit  20
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1
Varied Thrush  3
House Finch  X
Lesser Goldfinch  X
American Goldfinch  X
Fox Sparrow  2
Dark-eyed Junco  30
Golden-crowned Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  1
Spotted Towhee  2
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1

*My eBird records show the following while we’ve lived here: Chipping Sparrow seen only in April; white-crown in late March through April, then again in September; Lincoln’s only in April. So far, only nine species total–maybe some day a Harris’s? Or even a lark?

TONIGHT’S SALEM AUDUBON PROGRAM IS ABOUT DROUGHT AT MALHEUR AND ITS BIRD EFFECTS. SPEAKER IS DR. TERESA WICKS, PORTLAND AUDUBON SOCIETY’S BIOLOGIST THERE. 630pm. SALEM AUDUBOIN WEBSITE HAS NEWSLETTER THAN EXPLAINS HOW YOU CAN ZOOM IT, OR ATTEND IN PERSON. IT WILL BE ON YOUTUBE LATER THIS WEEK.

RIVERFRONT’S HIGH WATER