Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded the River S Unit of the Ridgefield NWR in Clark
Co. from 10:35am-4pm,mainly in search of the recent reports of Ferruginous
Hawk(s)from that location. We had a very diverse day of birding,as we drove
the entire River S Unit "loop" three times and checked each raptor over as
well as other birding along with the presence 5 other local birders
throughout the day. The weather remained cloudy throughout the entire day
with light scattered showers to and from destinations. We encountered good
numbers of raptor in general at the entire River S Unit of Ridgefield
NWR,mainly along the southern portion of the "loop" in the plowed,open
fields on both sides of the gravel road. Red-tailed Hawks in various ages
and colorations and Northern Harriers were the most numerous, but our main
raptor highlight was a immature "KRIDER'S"RED-TAILED HAWK well observed from
the southern portion of the loop,before it was chased off by an adult
dark-morph Red-tailed Hawk towards Bachelor Island. The bird was observed
flying over the road and perched atop a leafless tree in the large open
field for 15 minutes,as several key field marks were noted including the
overall paleness of the bird showing a nearly all white head with minor
streaking on the crown,white upperparts with dark brown streaking on the
upperbreast in the form of a partial breast band. The bill was quite small
and nearly compared to a Rough-legged Hawk,but in flight as noted and
overall structure and size was incorrect for a Rough-legged Hawk. The back
was fairly brown with minor white mottling contrasting to the white tail
with a three fairly narrow dark brown subterminal band,which appeared as one
large band at a distance.. The eye was dark and the underwings as viewed in
flight were noted as white with a partial patagial mark(dark brown area on
the inner underwing)with some dark barring on the outer primaries, and the
undertail coverts were completely white. This bird was very unique and our
palest individual raptor of the day,next to an adult light-morph
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK that was also present during the afternoon along the
souther portion of the River S Unit loop and actively hunting with the other
raptors. We also observed a single adult dark-morph "HARLAN'S RED-TAILED
HAWK upon our final afternoon drive along the southern portion of this
area,as it appears it is a very good area for raptors in general and they
seem to come and go,but many of the same individual were encountered
throughout the day sitting on the ground and in nearby trees,being mostly
immature birds.

Our other highlight of the day away from raptors was the lingering BLACK
PHOEBE observed along the canal immediately north of the Rest Lake
Observation Blind/restroom. The bird was heard then seen actively flycathing
low along the canal,before returning back into thick vegetation where it
remained. Good numbers of waterfowl and Sandhill Cranes persist at the River
S Unit of Ridgefield NWR,including large numbers of "Cackling"Canada Geese
and Northen Pintail with lesser numbers of other waterfowl species and the
recent arrival of Tundra Swans as noted by other observers recently were
noted too.

Our day began along I-5 at MP 62 north of Toledo in Lewis Co. with a single
WHITE-TAILED KITE observed perched atop a tree, as we continued south. At MP
34 along I-5 north of Kalama in Cowlitz Co. a single MUTE SWAN(of unknown
origin)was noted foraging along Carrolls Channel. At Kress Lake south of
Kalama in Cowlitz Co. 5 Tundra Swans were noted.

A list of our highlights noted at the River S Unit of Ridgefield NWR
included:

2 Great Egrets
75 Tundra Swans
9 "Dusky"Canada Geese
5 CINNAMON TEAL
20 Canvasback
18 Ruddy Ducks
3 Bald Eagles
26 Northern Harriers
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 RED-SHOULDERED HAWK(heard calling from north of the Kiwa trailhead)
28 Red-tailed Hawks
1 "Harlan's"Red-tailed Hawk
1 "KRIDER'S"RED-TAILED HAWK
15 Am.Kestrels
2 Dunlin
8 Long-billed Dowitchers
18 Wilson's Snipe
1 Herring Gull
1 Glaucous-winged Gull
1 BLACK PHOEBE
8 Am.Pipits
1 adult Northern Shrike
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Savannah Sparrow
14 Lincoln's Sparrows

On our way home after 4pm we observed 5 Tundra Swans along I-5 at MP 31
north of Kalama and a single OSPREY perched along I-5 and Carrolls Channel
at MP 34.5,with both sightings in Cowlitz Co.


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net