----------------Went, Sunday afternoon, driving and walking by Vancouver
Lake park, then north up Lower River Rd. to the end, at the old dairy,
which is now the south part of Ridgefield Nat'l Wildlife Refuge....north
of Vancouver, Wash.
The Heron rookery was loaded with nesting Blue Herons.....sometimes one
Heron was seen; sometimes a pair of Herons was seen on a nest.
Binoculars work OK, but a spoting scope is much better for more detailed
viewing. Since it was getting rather late in the day, and the rain was
'coming and going', I didn't do much walking around. But here is a list
of birds sighted by me in a relatively short time:
Northern Shovelers
Common Mergansers
Am. Widgeons
Green-winged Teals(many)
Buffleheads
Mallards
Am. Coots(numerous)
Pied-billed Grebes
Double-crested Cormorants(18 in one popular tree next to Col. River!!!)
Greater Scaup(12)
Lesser Scaup
northern Pintails
Ring-necked Ducks
Canada Geese(both larger permanents, and smaller migratories)
Great Egrets(2)
Sandhill Cranes(about a 100 or so!!)
Snow Geese(2)
Gadwalls
Great Blue Herons
Red-winged Blackbirds
Winter Wrens
Purple Finch
Robins(many)
Oregon Junco
Scrub Jays
Steller's Jay
Tree Swallows(5...the first arrivals I have seen)
Bald Eagle(1 immature)
Red-tailed Hawk
..............Did not see any Swans in the usual place on Post Office
Lake, so either they moved, or have started their migration
northwards(the more likely, since all the Swans usually leave by early
March). Till next time.........
Gerald Hamilton
Brush Prairie, Wash.
gerald at e-z.net