Columbia Estuary Report - 6/25/98

Does this weather suck or what?

I made two trips up Saddle Mountain over the weekend. On Friday,
the visibility was less than 30m and things were pretty quiet. By
Sunday the weather was clear and warm. HERMIT WARBLERS were very
talkative. A CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD was working the Delphiniums
about 2/3 the way up. There were also many RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRDS
so don't be fooled.

I only got 15 minutes of seawatching in before the rains came this
morning, but that was enough time to see 178 COMMON MURRES go by.
There are phenomenal numbers of BROWN PELICANS hanging out on
Sand Island, possibly as many as 1000 according to the Caspian
Tern researchers who've been monitoring numbers.

In the how low will they go department, a RING-BILLED GULL was
chasing a EURASIAN STARLING through the Fred Meyer parking lot
in an effort to pirate what appeared to be popcorn. Can mugging
HOUSE SPARROWS for the bugs they've pick off the grills of cars be
far behind?




--

Mike Patterson, Astoria, OR _Birds and other Wildlife of the
mpatters at orednet.org Columbia River Estuary_
http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/book_ad.html