Natalie and I returned to the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbia
White Tailed Deer today, making our second visit this month, and in about
three hours of nature watching we encountered about 41 bird species in
the sunshine along the Columbia River.

We didn't really encounter anything odd on this trip compared to our
visit 20 days ago. We arrived at the refuge around 11:30 a.m. and
immediately found that the BLACK PHOEBE is still prominent at the refuge
office. We also had no problem locating two WHITE-TAILED KITE sitting in
trees in the distance west of the refuge office. During our trip we saw
the White-tailed Kites in three other locations, including two in the
fields just south of the highway as we left the refuge area this
afternoon. Given the number of sightings we had, I really wonder if there
might be three or four kites in the area rather than the two we saw
initially? The last White-tailed Kite we saw was flying south over the
highway as we passed, leaving the general area where I saw two kites
flying north around dusk on Nov. 9, 2002.

The biggest surprise given the season was that we saw two Orange Sulphur
butterflies on the wing in the blackberries just inside the outer dike
and near the Columbia River. I don't think these are odd butterflies to
find here, but at the end of November seems very odd to me.

Following is the list of what we saw, in the order seen.

At the refuge office:
Black Phoebe
Northern Flicker
Starling
House Finch
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed and one Slate-colored Junco
Pied-billed Grebe
2 White-tailed Kite
Common Snipe
Northern Harrier
Mallard
7 Killdeer
Marsh Wren

Along the loop drive:
Fox Sparrow
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Pileated Woodpecker
Spotted Towhee
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Belted Kingfisher
Red-tailed Hawk
Common Raven
Stellar's Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Shoveler
Canvasback
Bufflehead
Peregrine Falcon (carrying a rodent of some kind in its talons as it flew
past)
3 American Kestrel
White-crowned Sparrow
American Robin
Canada Goose (including two banded birds, one with a red tag bearing
"HU9" and another with a white band bearing "AZL")
Western Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Green-winged Teal
American Wigeon
Great Blue Heron
Hooded Merganser
Northern Pintail
Hutton's Vireo
Crow

Birds that we saw here on Nov. 9 that we could not find again today
include Merlin and Northern Shrike. Maybe when we come back down around
Christmas...

Rob McNair-Huff ---------- mailto:rob at whiterabbits.com
White Rabbit Publishing -- http://www.whiterabbits.com
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