Today Al Larrabee (Tues Vol at RNWR) and I birded the River "S" Unit at
Ridgefield NWR (~4mi W of I-5 at Exit 14 in SW Washington;
http://www.fws.gov/ridgefieldrefuges/ ). We birded one loop together,
then I made a second loop on my own.

The weather was nice, no rain to speak of, overcast, just a brief touch
of sunlight, and mild.

Highlights:

PEREGRINE FALCON: While Al Larrabee and I were standing in the parking
lot at The Blind, out of nowhere came a juvenile PEREGRINE FALCON from
the marsh, and made a half strike at a flock of Golden-crowned Sparrows
on the road just N of the parking area. It veered N, missing the
bramble, then lit atop a deciduous tree nearby providing Excellent
scope views of its front, side, and back.

TRUMPETER SWAN: Thanks to Wilson Cady who had heard them and
subsequently pointed them out to me from The Blind. He showed me 4
juveniles and 2 adults.

RIVER OTTER: Five to 7, it was tough to get a good count as they were
actively moving along in the water control canal in the vicinity of the
"Bachelor Island Wetland" plack and tree N of The Blind.

ALBINO NUTRIA: In Canvasback Lake as seen from the SE corner where it
sits next to the SW corner of Rest Lake. I saw it on both loops today.
On my second loop I had great scope views of this otherwise useless bit
of wildlife (my personal opinion). Actually, they are not totally
useless, I have in the past, seen Coyotes eat them, so they have at
least that one redeeming value. Al Larrabee said the ALBINO strain of
Nutria has been seen off and on for about a dozen years.

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

Complete list of 59 species seen / heard:

Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose
TRUMPETER SWAN (4 juv/2 ad - Thanks Wilson Cady)
Tundra Swan
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
CANVASBACK (Rest Lake)
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup (Rest Lake)
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser (Rest Lake)
Common Merganser (fem on Long Lake)
Ruddy Duck
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
DARK PHASE RED-TAILED HAWK (near The Blind)
HARLAN'S RED-TAILED HAWK (E side)
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (3 seen today)
American Kestrel
PEREGRINE FALCON (juv near The Blind)
American Coot
SANDHILL CRANE (over a hundred seen today)
Wilson's Snipe (2 seen today)
California Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Glaucous-winged x Western Gull Hybrid (Thanks Wilson Cady)
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch (heard only, entrance canyon)
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Bewick's Wren
Winter Wren (seen & heard, entrance canyon)
Marsh Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
European Starling
Common Yellowthroat (fem seen briefly S of Kiwa parkng)
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow (Parkng lot at The Blind)
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
PURPLE FINCH
House Finch
American Goldfinch


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