Bird Ramblings - Bluebirds

Last Saturday, August the 8th, was "house cleaning day" at the Western Bluebird nesting box located at the Pavilion in the Dallas Retirement Village. The mother bluebird is shown removing a fecal sac, which is a white coated sack that surrounds the baby bird's waste. Bluebirds keep one of the cleanest nests of songbirds, and this is a daily task necessary to take care of the four baby birds in the nest. Both the male and the female share in the work of bringing food in and carrying out the fecal sacs.  
 

Siletz Bay NWR

Tuesday, August 4th we attempted to escape the extreme heat and smoke of the Willamette Valley with a trip to the Lincoln City area. It was cooler, but still a considerable amount of smoke. We concentrated mainly on the Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuge area, with this first stop at the Siletz Keys, an easily overlooked location with a small parking lot. 

The first bid I spotted was this Great Blue Heron. Not so sharp looking, it is actually an immature, still lacking the white stripe on top of its head.

Next, I spotted this Great Egret, notable because they have become so much more common in the last two decades as their populations have expanded north.

Here is the link to our Checklist. We also birded at Alder Island, just on the other side of Highway 101. Here is our Checklist for Alder Island.

Bird Ramblings - Doves

On July 30th I photographed this pair of Eurasian Collared-Doves as they were sharing a romantic moment atop the roof of The Lodge. Eurasian Collared-Doves are somewhat unique in that they can breed year-round. They have already bee successful in nesting once this summer and possibly more. The amount of time they are spending in this courtship has me convinced they will soon be setting up another nest site soon. 
 

Bird Ramblings - Sapsucker

 This is a Red-breasted Sapsucker, which is a member of the Woodpecker Family (Picidae). In our recent daily trips to the Dallas City Pyark we became quite familiar with Acorn Woodpeckers, and in fact I have recently feature then three times as you may well remember. During this time, we have been surprised to find Red-breasted Sapsuckers using some of the same trees that the Acorn Woodpeckers were using. This photo of this Red-breasted Sapsucker was taken at Dallas City Park on July 22nd. It can easily be differentiated from the Acorn Woodpeckers by the bold white wing patch.

Bird Ramblings - Bluebirds

Back on the 5th of July, Jeanette and I were doing a bird walk here at Dallas Retirement Village when we stopped to take a breather at The Pavillion. While we were resting on the couch, this male Western Bluebird made an inspection of a nearby nesting box and then stopped right in front of us! We were surprised because it has been a tough year for Western Bluebirds here at DRV. In spite of the fact that there were multiple nesting boxes available, I don't know of any that were actually successful nest sites.
 

Bird Ramblings - Woodpeckers

It's probably apparent that I have become slightly obsessed with the Acorn Woodpeckers in the Dallas City Park. But it's one of those things that the more you know, the more you discover there is to learn. It all began back in the middle of June when Jeanette and I were sitting on a bench in the park and saw an Acorn Woodpecker fly to a wooden snag along the creek. As we watched we saw one fly to a nesting cavity close by. The next week I got a photo of the male bringing a mouth full of bugs to the nest site. We know from past experience that Acorn Woodpeckers live, breed, and nest as a colony, and that they store acorns to use in the wintertime in holes bored in trees and power poles. Look closely at this photo taken on July 9th and notice the small circular hole in front of this Acorn Woodpecker, which will probably receive an acorn sometime this fall. This power pole is located next to the park on Robinhood Drive off of Allgood Street.  
 

Revisiting Darrow Bar

Yesterday Jeanette and I went for a bird walk at Darrow Bar an eBird Hotspot located along the Willamette River Greenway. We first birded here on February 24th of 2014 after moving to Salemtowne. On our revisit yesterday we made a checklist, which I was surprised to find it was our 55th checklist for this location. Here is yesterday's checklist. We took the short loop, stopping at the bench for a rest, skipping the extension to South and the extension to the North. We left determined to return again soon.