Thursday's Bird Watch

The easiest birds to spot for the Village Birders of the Dallas Retirement Village on last week's Bus Birding Trips to the Salem Riverfront Park were the Great Blue Herons. Their large size and patience to stand perfectly still for long periods of time make them easy targets for observation and photographing.  They are common year-around residents here in the Willamette Valley and can be spotted in the shallow water of our rivers and streams seeking out fish and frogs, and also in the open fields waiting for voles and field mice.  
 

Morgan Lake

Friends and fellow Dallas Retirement Village residents, Ron and Dot David, accompanied Jeanette and I on this early morning bird walk to Morgan Lake at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge. September 30th is the end of the open season for this access trail from Smithfield Road, with winter closure until April 1st, so its import to visit this week if you want a chance to see the incoming waterfowl. 
 

American Pipits, a winter migrant, were digging deep into the muck of the recently drained reservoir of Morgan Lake for mollusks and crustaceans. I believe it's a normal practice to drain the lake be able to flood the lower elevation ponds in the refuge.

  

American Crows were busy taking advantage of the exposed lakebed to capture food, in this case tiny frogs.

Ron reviews the Merlin app on his smart phone for bird sound identifications, while Jeanette enters the identifications into the eBird Checklist.

Salem Riverfront Park

 The Village Birders from Dallas Retirement Village took their Bus Birding Trip on Tuesday to the Salem Riverfront Park to get in a walk and look for birds.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous for our morning excursion.  Even a Red-Eared Slider Turtle had crawled out on a log to soak up some sun.

Here is our eBird Checklist

 

 

Another Secret of Toledo

 The last two weeks have been jam packed with all kinds of doctor appointments and family events, and the upcoming week looks to be equally full. Monday was wide open, and we made a quick decision to break away for a day-trip to the coast for a kind of reset. Once again, Toledo was on our radar, with a loop through Newport and up the coast to Lincoln City and back home. Our first stop was at East Slope Park in Toledo for a bird walk along Olalla Slough.  (Checklist).

Next, was a stop to bird the Depot Slough Path along the Toledo waterfront, a continuing favorite. A surprise here was the Port of Toledo is dredging out the channel. The dock, and all the boats have all been moved out to make room for the dredging operation. Despite the major interruptions to the area, we still found a fair number of birds. (Checklist)

And here is the "secret", which I question my sanity somewhat to reveal, except that I know a good number of people, particularly family and friends that love to canoe, kayak, and paddle board, that would appreciate knowing about Paddle Park. The Port of Toledo has built a number of parks, among them is Paddle Park. Check on this link. This looks to be a wonderful location, but at this point, under used, to launch your watercraft, or just enjoy a picnic, and of course, look for birds. 

A quick bird check added to the inventory of birds to be seen here (Checklist)

 

From Paddle Park we continued on along scenic Yaquina Bay Road to Newport, and then up the coastline, stopping at Boiler Bay State Park with a great ocean-view for our lunch stop. (Checklist)

After lunch it was on to the Alder Island Trail at Siletz National Wildlife Refuge for our last birding stop of the day. (Checklist) 

We were back home to Dallas Retirement Village in late afternoon in time for dinner in the Timber Grill.

Thursday's Bird Watch

Turkeys are the one bird everyone seems to know, and no one needs help making an identification.  Lots of people have been reporting to me recently that they have seen them here at Dallas Retirement Village, and yet, I never seem to be at the right place at the right time to see them myself.  I am indebted to Mary Ransier at the Front Desk for today's Turkey photograph, taken in the Village on 9/7/23.  Thank you, Mary.
 

Brown's Ferry Park

We met Jeanette's sister, Patty, and her husband, Kordell, today for a birdwalk and picnic at Brown's Ferry Park. I had never been there before, but it is the number two ebird Hotspot in the top 100 Hotspots of Clackamas County with over 150 species of birds identified. Located on the Tualatin River, less than a half of a mile East of busy Interstate 5, it was "hidden right under our nose". We were fortunate to find the parking almost empty when we arrived, and the sun was just beginning to warm up the day. Birds were somewhat scarce as is typical of this time of year.  In end we had a list of 29 bird species, with the most activity at the pond. It's a place I am looking forward to for return trips in different seasons. 

Best bird of the day was this Sora. It was also the first time anyone has reported a Sora at this location. Our picnic plans were thwarted by mean yellow jackets, so we opted to have lunch at The Brix South at the Tualatin Commons with a lovely view of the lake. 

Thursday's Bird Watch

Adjacent to the nearby Dallas City Park is the Delbert Hunter Arboretum and Botanic Garden, which is a wonderful place to take a walk and enjoy the many trees, plants, and scrubs.  Scattered throughout the arboretum are a number of benches that are perfect for stopping to sit for a spell, catch your breath, and watch for birds.  This is exactly what we did on this past Sunday afternoon, and we were rewarded with this Red-breasted Sapsucker that flew in to work on its project of drilling holes for sap.