Three of us went on an Washington Ornithological Society outing, led by
Wilson Cady, to explore Ridgefield and the lower Vancouver WA area along
the Columbia River this past Saturday, January 10. I wanted to mention
a couple of highlights. It was interesting to learn that 70% of the
Canada geese at Ridgefield are of the Cackling subspecies. The Westerns
hang out more on the Columbia river. The different subspecies each
prefer specific habitat, which I didn't know. As we were walking along
a trail near the water, a hunter in a boat on the other side of the
strip of alder and fir thicket shot up at a flock of cacklers overhead
and hit one. It died and landed next to the trail where we were. It
turns out this was illegal as hunting is not allowed from boats. It was
interesting to see one of these cacklers close up. It was just a little
bit bigger than a pintail. It was a beautiful goose. I was used to
always seeing those giant Westerns, so this Cackler seemed very small.
The other subspecies we saw was the Dusky, described by Wilson as dark
as Hershey chocolate bars, and, of course, the larger Westerns.

At one point we saw a raptor flying among the trees and tried to ID it,
but it flew off. A red-shouldered hawk has been spotted in this area
recently and we were hoping to find it. Also seen in the area recently,
but not on this trip, was a swamp sparrow.

Another items of interest was at the Vancouver lowlands where we spotted
a green-backed heron. At one point it was perched on a branch with snow
coming down everywhere. The green-backs are supposed to migrate
somewhere down to Central or South America, but apparently this one
decided to stay home and enjoy the snow. I guess El Nino faked it out.
I'm sure it is regretting its decision to stay. Also seen were 400-500
sandhill cranes. Scrub jays were seen scattered around throughout
Ridgefield and Vancouver, WA. Another highlight was watching an eagle
hunt down injured geese on Post Office lake. It was pretty spectacular.


Even though it snowed part of the time and was very cold, it was a great
outing and nice day, provided one remained bundled up. We really had a
nice selection of ducks, birds and raptors.

Franny Drobny
Seattle, Washington
fdrobny at cairncross.com