Subject: Black River, Thurston County
Date: Aug 12 21:59:11 2001
From: Douglas Canning - dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org


Date: August 11, 2001
Location: Black River, Thurston County, Washington

Temperature: 28 - 31 degrees celsius
Prevailing wind speed: < 1 km/h gusting to: 6-11 km/h
Percentage of sky covered by clouds: 0%
Precipitation: none

This afternoon between 1440 and 1714 I canoed the Black River from the
boat launch south of Little Rock, downstream ~1.3 mile to the old wood
trestle, and then up the dead end slough ~0.4 mile to its head, and
back. It's been 11 years since I was last here, and 20 years
since I was coming here regularly. The river is little changed aside
from maturation of the riparian Oregon Ash forest. Given the weather
and time of day today, it's no surprise bird life was scant. The big
hit was seeing 2 River Otter and hearing them snorting and blowing.
One "stood up" in the water to look at me, much as do Harbor Seals
when I'm kayaking.

Birds seen (in taxonomic order):

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) 1
Green Heron (Butorides virescens) 1 [1]
Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) 3 [2]
Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) 1 [3]
Band-tailed Pigeon (Columba fasciata) 2 [4]
Belted Kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon) 2 [5]
Unidentified Empidonax (Empidonax sp.)
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) present [6]
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) 17 [7]
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) 1 [8]

Footnotes:

[1] Juvenile.
[2] Juveniles and/or females.
[3] It bolted across the river maybe 25 - 30' in front of me and 10
feet above the water; what I saw was a crow-sized bird with a
distinctly black and brown barred tail, a darkish brown back, and
a lighter brown breast -- in retrospect, clearly a Cooper's.
[4] Together (a pair?) in Oregon Ash canopy.
[5] One a female, the other ?
[6] Heard at various locations.
[7] A common sound and sight along the river, perching in top-killed
Oregon Ash and snags, and darting out fly-catching.
[8] Heard in brush.

Total number of species seen: 10

Census archived at http://birdnotes.net

*****************************
Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington
dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org
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