Success at Last!

I now have photographic evidence that our efforts to provide nesting sites at Salem Audubon Nature Reserve are a success.  In January I began helping construct artificial cavities in large salvaged oak limbs for nesting sites at the Reserve.  A crew of volunteers worked at the Reserve every Wednesday, and by end of February we had ten limbs finished and planted in the ground. Then the waiting game began.  April and May passed, with only an occasional “looker” spotted at sites #1 and #6, but no one seemed to be setting up house.  Watching a bird house in my own back yard, I have come to realize that chickadees are rather cautious and quick in and out of the box, as I had baby birds before I was even aware a nest had been built. This clued me in to what might be happening at the Reserve, in spite of checking at the nest sites several times a week I just might not have been lucky enough to be there at the right second. Then, yesterday I had a fleeting glance of a bird leaving a nest site, but not a good enough look to even know what kind of a bird, so this morning I went back determined to be able to get a better look and hopefully a photo.  It took almost an hour and a half, but I finally did come up with this photo of a Black-capped Chickadee bringing bugs to the nest site.  For those you might want to check at the Reserve, the nest site with the activity is #4.

Spotted Towhee

I went birding this morning to a couple of my favorite sites east of Salem, Lyons City Park and Stayton Riverfront Park. Most of the birds seem to be out of sight in the thick summer foliage, but this Spotted Towhee seemed insistent that I take his photo on the pedestrian bridge in Stayton, so I finally obliged. Some of the ones that seemed to like to hide the most were Common Yellowthroats and Black-headed Grosbeaks, and some that I could not identify by sound at all. Almost makes one wish for the bare trees of winter. 

Aumsville Ponds County Park

I took the old adage, let sleeping dogs lie, to heart yesterday morning and slipped out the door early leaving Buster still asleep in bed.  I wanted to check out the Aumsville Ponds for birding, and dogs are not allowed.  Plus with Jeanette gone for five days to hike the Rogue River Trail, he has little motivation to get out of bed. If memory serves me right the ponds were formerly used to raise fish by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife years ago. They are now maintained by Marion County as a day-use park. At the east end of Aumsville I took Bishop Road south to Bates Road and parked in the parking lot at the largest pond, Young Lake.  It has a restroom, a picnic table, and a one mile trail, more like a path, circles the lake. The habitat looks good for birds, with lots of smaller ponds, and lots of vegetation, but I left being un-impressed with the birds I saw, even though I counted fifteen different species in the thirty minutes I was there.  I would have expected to see a Kingfisher or two and some Great Blue Herons, and more ducks than just a few Mallards.  I’ll probably try it again another time and I’ll try exploring some of the smaller ponds, which access seems unsure. If you go, keep in mind the park is only open 8 AM to sunset, May 1^st to Oct. 31, and no dogs are allowed.

male Rufous Hummingbird 

Once in a Lifetime Experience

You almost need to have watched the PBS production of “An Original DUCKumentary”, narrated by Paul Giamatti, to understand what I saw yesterday. I certainly wouldn't have been aware of what I was witnessing if I had not previously watched the DVD. The import fact you need to understand is that baby ducks, in the DUCKumentary case, Wood Ducks, have to jump out of their nest high in a tree and make their way to the water the first day after hatching.  This is what I got to see by pure coincidence yesterday while birding at Luckiamute Meadows in Kings Valley.  As I was approaching the Luckiamute River, I saw a bird drop to the ground.  I moved in closer to see if I could spot it, and could hear quite a bit of peeping going on.  Then another bird tumbled to the ground.  I looked up and spotted a nesting box and realized these were ducklings jumping from the nest box some fifteen feet up in an oak tree.  I could tell from the sound and all the commotion that they were making a mad dash through the tall grass to the river, so pulled out my camera and started photographing. 

Ducklings making a bee-line to the river.

The mother suddenly appeared out of nowhere to collect the ducklings. 

As the mother leads the ducklings away, I realize for the first time they are Hooded Mergansers. Eventually I counted seven ducklings.

The empty nesting box

I am still amazed that the little ducklings on their first day had to free fall from their nesting box fifteen feet to the ground, and then make their way through the tall grass another fifteen feet or more to the river, jump in and swim away.  All this without any practice. I doubt that I will ever be lucky enough again to be at a nesting box at the exact moment when this amazing event takes place. 

Babies in the Borja’s Birdhouse

Earlier this year I set up a bird house at my daughter Lisa Borja’s home in Dallas.  A pair of Black-capped Chickadees found it, and in fact Lisa and her boys named the birds Roger and Mindy and painted the bird’s initials on the bird house.  Roger and Mindy built a nest and laid some eggs and now are busy bringing food to the babies. I stopped by yesterday and was lucky enough to catch Roger or Mindy, I’m not sure which, arriving at the bird house with food.    

Seven Feathers RV Resort

This is our campsite at Seven Feathers RV Resort in Canyonville Oregon where we stayed three days while attending the View-Navion Group National Rally. If you look closely you will see a small skinny dog standing in the shade in the bottom left hand corner.  Camping with around a hundred other people in sixty of the same kind of RV’s was pretty interesting.  We made some new friends and picked up a lot of pointers regarding Winnebago View motor homes.  It was especially fun for us, as we have stayed at this RV park coming and going to California and Arizona since it first opened a few years ago.  It was amazing to see how the small trees they planted such a short time ago are now grown and providing shade for camping sites and habit for birds. Black-headed Grosbeaks seem to love the trees particularly and sang their hearts out every morning. Besides attending the daily seminars and events we also made time to go birding.  Below are photos of some of the birds we saw. 

   California Quail

Red-winged Blackbird

Green Heron

White-crowned Sparrow

Bullock's Oriole

Yesterday was such a busy one at the Seven Feathers RV Resort where we are attending a National Rally of the View-Navion RV Group, or Skinny Winnies as they are also called, that I didn’t get around to posting a blog until after 9 PM, and by then so many people were on the WiFi it was totally bogged down.  What I wanted to report was that we spent a pleasant day in Elkton on Monday, helping our renters and catching up with friends.  We also got in a bird walk from the city park out to the Elkton Community Education Center.  This male Oriole at the ECEC was one that we enjoyed the most.  We spent a lot of time last Spring watching them build their very interesting nest in this same tree. Click here to see some more photos of Bullock’s Orioles.