Hello, tweeters.

Netta and I spent the weekend on the Oregon coast and at some of the
Willamette Valley wildlife refuges. Cold and windy, it wasn't the
greatest weather for birding, but we were impressed by the thousands of
swallows feeding over some of the lakes in the Willamette Valley
(mostly Violet-green and Tree, a few Barn and Cliff) on Sunday, also
the thousands of Cackling Geese in the fields. I wonder if they pack in
more tightly when feeding than Canadas do; their feeding flocks are
more like hordes, or actually brown moving carpets.

The most interesting sighting was of two Pelagic Cormorants about 8
miles inland from Florence on the Siuslaw River on Saturday. We spotted
them bathing in the river as we zoomed by, and Netta said "Pelagic
Cormorants." I said, "No, they don't occur in fresh water." She said,
slightly more adamantly, "I saw the white flank patches" (your typical
husband-wife dialogue). So I turned the car around and found them
again, and sure enough, Pelagic Cormorants in full breeding plumage far
from the sea. As we watched, they both took off to the west, but then
one turned around and headed upriver. We headed off to follow it and
finally lost it, still flying east, at about 10 miles upriver. This was
quite amazing to me.

The coast of Oregon is really beautiful, as most of you know, and the
side roads in the Willamette Valley are picturesque and birdy.

Dennis
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Dennis Paulson & Netta Smith
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382