I had no less than 4 new birds for my life list on Friday and 1 on Saturday.
I started Friday with a Ruby-crowned Kinglet dashing around my porch in the
morning. Thus inspired, I decided to take the day off and go birding. As
I reached my first intersection and stopped, a Pileated Woodpecker flew
across the street and onto a tree in front of me.

Heading west, I took a wrong turn in Elmira (14 miles west of Eugene) and
found a great spot. Everything was frozen but a small creek was running in
a field and I found:

1 male, 2 female Northern shovlers
Dunlin (life bird 2)
Killdeer
male wood duck
pair of mallards
a bevy of shorebirds I wasn't able to positively ID

I decided to go down the road to Kirk Pond on Clearlake Rd. (the dam end of
Fern Ridge Res.) and really hit the jackpot! I had:

1 Cinamon Teal (life bird 3)
several Green winged Teals (both sexes)
two male Redheads (life bird 4)
Greater Scaup
Northern shovlers

Saturday I was finally able to ID a Hermit thrush who'd been hanging around
my feeder for a week or so (life bird 5).

and

Sunday I strapped on my ice skates and headed down the driveway to get the
paper when I saw a remarkable event. One of our resident scrub jays was
sitting near the feeder patiently waiting for a Steller's jay to finish
eating! Normally it's all out war between these two.

Happy birding!

Peggi



Peggi Rodgers
peggir at ori.org
Eugene, OR
"A bird does not sing because it has an
answer, It sings because it has a song"