..........Sunday.....Ridgefield NWR....River-S unit:
----Sunny, with 75-80 degrees....really swell autumn weather!!!!!!!
----Water being pumped into many of the lakes and ponds. The
newly-made seasonal marshes will have to wait for the autumn rains. But
* no* ducks or geese!!!!!!(a few Coots and Mallards seen). The resident
ducks will come when they realize that there is water now in those dry
ponds!!!!!!!! However, unless migratory ducks and geese start arriving
soon, the hunters starting this weekend will have little to shoot
at!!!!(You notice me shedding hugh tears over this one, don't you???
(-: Don't get me started again on this one again!!!!!!! *Hunting* in a
wildlife *refuge*!!! U-u-u-gh!!!!!!!!!!
-----Anyway.....Not much seen. Swallows are gone. A couple of
Swainson's Thrushes ( a bit late?? But then...this whole season has been
screwy anyway!!!); some female Oregon Juncos; Bewick's Wren,
Black-capped Chicadees; Sparrows, Blue Herons, several Red-tailed Hawks,
Turkey Vultures, and......zillions of Starlings!!! Heard A Horned Owl
somewhere by the Columbia River.
-----25-30 Sandhill Cranes seen earlier in the west end. All I
personally saw were several on Bachelor's Island, and 4 or 5 small
groups of 3-6 Cranes passing overhead.

...........Apparently, due to the late, wet spring up north, breeding
was delayed, and now the unusually late summer-like warmth is delaying
southward migratory patterns. Strangely quiet for this time of year at
RNWR.

You all take care now, you all hear!!!!

Gerald Hamilton
Brush Prairie, Wash.
gerald at e-z.net