Aside from fields containing hundreds of Canada geese, there wasn't too much
happening out at the south end of Fern Ridge Sunday afternoon. We had a
Kestral at the parking lot off KR Neilson (sp) Rd. and lots of swallows.
The light was wrong to determine whether they were violet-green or tree.
I'm leaning toward tree swallows.

We were rewarded by great hawk viewing in that area, though. A female
Harrier was spooking geese in the field at the intersection of Cantrell and
KR Neilson. We watched her for awhile and headed toward Central where we
found a road off to the left (sorry, can't remember the name - if anyone's
interested I'll find out). In a field a mile up the road was a male Harrier
- beautiful bird! All the birds were very cooperative, landing in fields
and sitting still for us to get a good look.

We had a moment of excitement thinking we were viewing a tri-colored
blackbird. But closer inpection showed it to be a red-wing.

There were a couple of pairs of Mallards and some Buffleheads on Suttle Rd.
in Elmira (what was an ice flow a couple of weeks ago is now a large pond)
and a pair of Common Merganzers sailed past us down the Long Tom Channel in
Veneta.

Still no sign of a returning hummer - I"m waiting anxiously - coming from
California, I miss having them the year round.

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"