Thursday, October 31, 2013

Final Birding Blitz

Yesterday afternoon we did a quick birding blitz to a couple of our favorite locations, Cooper Creek Reservoir and Plat I Reservoir, fully aware that this was probably our last birding effort while residents of Douglas County. We were particulary curious to find out if our White Pelican that we have been keeping tabs of at Plat I was still there, and it was.  At Cooper Creek we found the greatest concentration of birds, huge numbers of American Coots and Canada Geese congested the south-east end of the reservoir.  But, you never want to assume that because at first glance they all appear to be coots or geese, that that is all there is.  We managed to sort out some Mallards, American Wigeon, Northern Shovelers, and some Green-wing Teals. After finishing our count and walking back to the car I took one last look and noticed a little spec we might have overlooked.  Checking with my binoculars I discovered this small male Wood Duck making his was along the camouflaged edge of the cattails. His brilliant colors made a fine parting gift for our last big effort in Douglas County. Next week we move to West Salem and our birding efforts will switch to Polk County.

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