New Life Bird!

Jeanette this morning in our car, bundled up against the freezing cold, binoculars in hand, searching the fields of Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge for a rare bird, a Ruff. To our great good fortune, our birding friend Brandon Wagoner was already parked along the road busy, searching with his spotting scope. A little later, as he worked his way further down the road, he called on his cell phone to say he had found the Ruff! It was a new Life Bird for us.

Serious birders keep a "Life List".  This is a list of bird species they identify for the very first time.  It starts out quite easy and builds fast as you add one bird after another.  But the longer you keep at it the more difficult it becomes to find a brand-new species you have never seen before. Years ago, it was a daunting task, usually with a paper list, to keep track of what you had seen, or what was new.  But now with e-Bird.org, it's simple, and your list is saved for you and available via the Internet and you know automatically when you find a new bird that it is a Life Bird.

This year has been amazing year for us here in little rural Polk County. On January 27th we were shown by some other birders a Field Sparrow, a bird normally seen on the Eastside of the Rockies.  This sparrow was first found by Brandon Wagner and was a first for the State of Oregon. On February 10th we again profited by the experience of other birders, and Rick Bennett pointed out a Black-and-white Warbler, a first for Polk County.  Today we excitedly added a Ruff, not a record for Oregon, or Polk County, but a new addition to our Life List, which now stands at 328 species.

Black and White Warbler

This turned out to be an exciting morning as we went in search of another record bird.  This is a Black and White Warbler, a record first for Polk County.  It was found a couple of days ago in the Independence Riverfront Park area. When we arrived at 8:49, two other birders were already on the bird, just across the Ash Creek Bridge along the Willamette River Trail. 

  

Here us our complete eBird Observation List.

House Finch

House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus)

 While looking for birds in the Inspiration Garden at Mt. Fir Park in Independence on Thursday, Jeanette and I were stunned by the brilliant red of this male House Finch. I can only guess that he is putting on his brightest best for the upcoming breeding season. House Finches, although very common now in our urban areas, are actually rather late arrivals, not appearing in the Willamette Valley region until the 1940's. Thier species name "mexicanus" is probably a hint to the original geographic location. It is now February, and I was glad to be reminded that the wonderful Spring season is due to begin with all the attractive plumage of males on display in an effort to coax females into pairing up.