Subject: [Tweeters] Ridgefield NWR on a rainy Saturday: Sick & Injured
Date: Apr 7 23:08:13 2007
From: Bill Clemons - willclemons at yahoo.com


Today, Carol Ledford and I birded Ridgefield NWR (~4mi
W of I-5 at Exit 14 in SW Washington;
http://www.fws.gov/ridgefieldrefuges/ ).

It was fairly quiet and rainy most of the day with a
touch of thunder and lightning in the afternoon..

There were in most cases, very low numbers of
individuals, but there were well over 50 species
anyway.

We saw three COYOTES, one single and a pair. One of
the pair, the female appeared to be quite under the
weather. When we first saw her off the passenger side
of the car, she was ~ 70 feet away and lying down at
the edge of a bramble line on the SE side after you
leave Rest Lake for good. The male separated from her
(which is how we noticed them) for a while and he
stood in the middle of the road for about a minute or
so; only 30 feet in front of the car. The female
eventually got up slowly and was continually walking
slowly and eating grasses to settle her obviously
distressed digestive system. If her frequent stops
for eliminations were not enough of a downer for her,
her injured right front paw added another layer of
misery to her day. We sat with the engine off for a
total of about 10 minutes and at one point she was off
the drivers side about 20 feet standing still looking
at us looking at her.

CINNAMON TEAL: There were good numbers of this
species, perhaps a minimum of two dozen drakes
scattered around the refuge.

RED-TAILED HAWK: Surprisingly, only one was seen on
the day.

CANVASBACK: Only one; seen from the Blind on Rest
Lake.

YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD: These beauties are back, but
there were only a few males seen and heard; a Most
Welcomed return.




Complete list of birds seen:

Pied-billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
American Coot
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Dunlin
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Snipe
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Brown Creeper
Bewick's Wren
Winter Wren
Marsh Wren
American Robin
European Starling
Audubon's Warbler
Myrtle Warbler
Spotted Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch


Bill Clemons
SW of Portland in Mtn Park
Willclemons AT Yahoo dot com



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