Natalie and I finished our weekend swing through Southwest Washington
yesterday with visits to Dike Access Road near Woodland, the Shillapoo
Wildlife Area and Vancouver Lake, and by driving through the southern end
of Ridgefield NWR and then doing a dusk run around the River S Unit at
the Ridgefield NWR before heading toward home to Tacoma. We had
intermittent rain and sunny periods throughout the day.

Highlights for the trip included seeing our third WHITE-TAILED KITE in
less than 24 hours, this time finding one hunting in a field in the south
end of the Shillapoo Wildlife Area, just northwest of Vancouver Lake. We
also found 40 SANDHILL CRANE feeding in a field in the north end of the
Shillapoo Wildlife Area, and we added another 50-plus Sandhill Crane to
our tally for the day as we saw and listened to them flying overhead as
we drove the River S Unit of the Ridgefield NWR. We also had a great view
of a Rough-legged Hawk consuming dinner just off the road at the south
end of the S Unit, and the large inner field at the southern reaches of
the S Unit auto route were teeming with raptors as darkness fell around 5
p.m. More on that later in this post.

I have posted a trio of photos from the day's birding on my nature
journal Web site, The Equinox Project at http://www.whiterabbits.com/
weblog.html.

Here are the site-by-site lists for Sunday.

Woodland Dike Access:
- Red-tailed Hawk
- American Kestrel
- Northern Harrier
- Northern Flicker
- Starling
- Crow
- Western Meadowlark
- Brewers Blackbird
- Cowbird
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Rock Dove
- Canada Goose
- Song Sparrow
- House Finch
- Gold crowned Sparrow

Shillapoo Wildlife Area
- White-tailed Kite
- Great Blue Heron (8)
- Red-tailed Hawk (3)
- American Kestrel (12)
- Winter Wren
- Ring-necked Pheasant
- Western Scrub Jay
- Peregrine Falcon
- Belted Kingfisher (2)
- Mourning Dove (4)
- Northern Flicker (2)
- Brewers Blackbird
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Barn Swallow (a single bird on a wire mixed in with hundreds of blackbirds)
- Caspian Tern (flying over the Columbia River at Frenchman Bar)
- Rock Dove
- Northern Harrier (6)
- Canada Goose
- Sandhill Crane (40-plus)
- Great Egret (2)

Ridgefield NWR near Post Office Lake:
- American Widgeon (200-plus)
- Eurasian Widgeon (3)
- American Coot
- Mallard
- Northern Shoveler
- Bufflehead
- small group of peeps, likely Dunlin since they were so light colored

Ridgefield NWR S Unit (4-5 p.m.):
- Canada Goose
- Northern Pintail
- Greater White Fronted Goose
- Tundra Swan (2)
- Bufflehead
- Mallard
- American Coot
- Canvasback
- Ruddy Duck
- Lesser Scaup
- Sandhill Crane (1 on ground, 50-plus flying)
- American Widgeon
- Winter Wren
- Marsh Wren
- American Kestrel
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Rough-legged Hawk
- Ferruginous Hawk
- immature Bald Eagle

Regarding the hawks seen around 4:45 p.m. at Ridgefield NWR, if you are a
raptor fan at all, I cannot stress enough just how cool this field along
the last section of the motor route at the River S Unit is. It is a must
see! There were easily two dozen or more raptors feeding in the area at
once, and they were doing mid-air jousting with each other as well. My
only wish was that I had more daylight left to watch these guys last
night. As an example, we drove past a Red-tailed Hawk sitting on a speed
limit sign not more than 15 feet from the car, and right after that we
watched as a Rough-legged Hawk ripped apart and consumed its dinner - it
looked like a peep of some kind from the size and light feathers - and
that was happening just 20-25 feet from the side of the road. Amazing raw
nature!



Rob McNair-Huff ---------- mailto:rob at whiterabbits.com
White Rabbit Publishing -- http://www.whiterabbits.com
Mac Net Journal ---------- http://www.whiterabbits.com/MacNetJournal/
The Equinox Project ------ http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html