Hi Tweets,

Larry and I had a *fantastic* extra long President's Day weekend of birding down south, in and around the Portland area. Following is our trip and bird sighting report. Sorry for the delay in posting (it's been a busy week since we got back) and for the length -- we had outstanding birding every day but one (and that one day, we had great waterfall "watching"!). Trip highlights include a FLOCK of YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, a GREAT BLUE HERON ROOKERY, WOOD DUCKS, CINNAMON TEAL, a LAKE FULL of NORTHERN SHOVELERS, SCRUB-JAYS everywhere we went, a FOREST FULL of VARIED THRUSH, HOODED MERGANSER, AMERICAN KESTREL, NORTHERN PINTAIL, a FLOCK of SANDHILL CRANES, a RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER, and a hunting SHORT-EARED OWL. Is there such a condition as "Birder's Neck", a la carpal tunnel or such overuse-related disorder? If so, I have it, from so much craning my neck all weekend!

**Friday, February 16, 2007
Nisqually Wildlife Refuge outside Olympia, WA
We started out to the RIGHT around the visitor center, but the best birding for us turned out to be on the path around to the LEFT of the visitor center, looking across the pond. Here's what we saw throughout the couple of hours we were there walking around:
-Red-Tailed Hawk (1)
-Bald Eagle (2)
-Ruby-Crowned Kinglet (1)
-Yellow-Rumped Warbler (at least 1, flitting in the trees across the pond)
-Bufflehead (male and female)
-Ring-Necked Duck
-American Coot (looked to be somewhere between Juvenile and Adult, based on the size/color of the 'lump' on its forehead)
-Hooded Merganser (females, 2)
-Northern Shoveler
-Great Blue Heron (2)
-Belted Kingfisher (1)
-Spotted Towhee
-Black-Capped Chickadees
-Song Sparrow
-Rock Doves (~10)
-American Robin (lots)
-Canadian Geese

**Saturday, February 17, 2007
1) Outside of our hotel in Beaverton, OR
-Northern Flickers (3, distinctly orange-red under wings and tail, too far away to note location of red on head or face)
-Varied Thrush (heard but not seen)
2) Tualatin Hills Nature Park
Beautiful, paved area for urban walkers to join nature. Not a lot of birds seen:
-Winter Wren
-Bewick's Wren
3) Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge
Again we went off to the RIGHT around the trail, but then found the very best birding for us to be coming back around the other side of the loop, 'behind' the marsh area and along the trail that backs the creepy-looking mausoleum buildings.
-Red-winged Blackbirds (calling beautifully to one another from high up in the trees)
-Winter Wren
-Wood Ducks (2 pairs, male and female, hidden away in a quiet little 'cove' amongst the trees)
-Mallards
-Western Scrub-Jay (~3)
-Mexican Jay (? 1) (We're not positive on this id, but when we opened the birding book to try to id what we saw, we both instantly pointed to the drawing of the Mexican Jay. It was lighter blue than the Scrub-Jays, lacked the "necklace", was more blue overall than the Juvenile Scrub-Jay, but had a long tail and seemed to have a gray breast, so wasn't a Pinyon Jay... With all the rare sightings that have been noted this Winter, we've decided to believe that it was a Mexican Jay that we saw. :) It was in the trees along with several STELLAR'S JAYS.
-Broad-winged Hawk (flying overhead, briefly before being obscured by the trees. Again, an uncertain id, but the first thing Larry noted when we saw it was "Wow, it's wings were really broad!". I noted the darkish outline around its wings, with pale secondaries and otherwise light markings. If it was a broad-winged, it was a Juvenile because we didn't notice specific white/dark banding on the tail.)
-Great Blue Heron
-Downy Woodpecker
4) Rhododendron Garden
A very nice fellow-birder (named Art) who we met on the trail at Oaks Bottom chased us down as we were leaving, apparently taking pity on us for the enthusiasm we expressed about having seen the two Wood Duck pairs in the cove. Turns out that Wood Ducks can be seen swimming in (easily photographed) numbers, along with several other interesting types of ducks, at the Rhodie Garden. We followed Art in our car to the Garden, where he led us to a pond full of ducks (and surrounded by bird photographers). We only had a few minutes before dusk and then dark overtook, but we saw a plethora of Wood Ducks, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, and American Widgeon (and one of the photographers advised that a European Widgeon could also be seen elsewhere in the garden). Personally, we much more cherished our sighting of the Wood Ducks in a more natural habitat back at Oaks Bottom, but we really appreciated Art and his generosity. Interestingly, he seemed to take Wood Ducks for granted, apparently seeing them a lot in his area, but kept mentioning with interest the Cormorants that were also in the waters in the Garden, which we didn't personally find all that remarkable. I guess it's all in where you live!

**Sunday, February 18, 2007
1) Smith & Bybee Lakes
An incredible walk, we had the whole place virtually to ourselves for around 2 hours, we were able to walk far far out on the marshland point that extends out into the lake (? without seeing a map, I'm still a bit uncertain about where exactly we were walking). Only saw a few birds on our walk in:
-accidentally spooked some sort of hawk out of a tree ahead of us on the trail, probably a RED-TAILED HAWK.
-American Coot
-Northern Flicker
-a beaver, swimming out in the water
-a few different ducks (I didn't note their types, and now I forget what they were, though I do remember Bufflehead)
The pi?ce de r?sistance came as we were leaving. We took a short loop, close to the head of the trail, and as we walked into the small clearing, suddenly we both spotted a smallish bird flit into a nearby tree. We identified it at the same time, a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, and as we stood there for another 10 minutes or so, suddenly we found ourselves in the midst of a flock of them! They were in the trees in the 'clearning' and also out amongst the reeds in the water beyond the viewpoint shelter. We got fantastic views of them, with several of them in different stages, from almost no yellow anywhere except the rump, to vibrant yellow on rump, cheeks, and head. They were *fantastic*! I could barely tear myself away, but we had plans to go on to bird at yet another location...
2) Sauvie Island (pronounced 'Saw-vee' or 'So-vee' (not "suave-eh" as I was mistakenly saying!)) (for more information, see http://www.sauvieisland.org/ and http://www.dfw.state.or.us/wildlifearea/sauvieisland.htm)
I can't recommend this area enough for incredible birding! This was probably/easily our best birding of our whole trip. The island is somewhat remote and also sparsely populated, with incredible habitat all over. There are designated wildlife areas and viewpoints, which are *great* (though unfortunately closed to walk-in birders from Oct-April but open to hunters with a valid license (do any of you birders ever buy a hunting license just so you can go out and experience a whole area?), but we even had amazing birding just along the main roads on the island (Oak Island Road and Reeder Road, as I recall). We saw sooo many birds everywhere. Here are some highlights:
-Scrub Jays
-American Kestrel (we saw at least three, our first time, and got to watch them hunting in fields and hanging out on wires and fenceposts, pumping their tails (they look like they're trying to *balance* on the wire, frankly), *just* like how they're described in Sibley)
-Great Blue Herons (8 to 10+, hanging out high up in some trees along a river that is alongside the road, with visible signs of the beginnings of several nests -- clearly a rookery (heronry?))
-Hawks (numerous, mostly un-identifiable by us still hawk-novices, though several clearly RED-TAILED, and several with a very buffy breast, *maybe* some were OSPREY because they supposedly populate the island, but we didn't id any of them specifically)
-Bald Eagle (immature and mature, wow some *great* views of them)
-Golden-crowned Sparrows
-Red-winged Blackbirds (flocking around a corn feeder at one Wildlife Refuge entrance spot, along with the G.C. Sparrows)
-Northern Pintail
-Northern Harrier
-Northern Shoveler
-Sandhill Cranes (several hundred, but unfortunately at a great distance -- and we without a spotting scope as yet! Sigh...)
-Swans (Trumpeter? we think)
-Owl (some sort, only heard, not seen)

**Monday, February 19, 2007
Drove the Historic Columbia River Highway, from Troutdale to Multnomah Falls. It was a *very* rainy day, we got pretty soaked, visibility wasn't great, but the falls were fun to see and we had a nice day overall.
-American Kestrel (got a wonderful close-up view of one sitting on a wire near the road, so we were able to see all of the distinguishing markings on its face -- incredible!)

**Tuesday, February 20, 2007
1) Leaving Portland, we stopped at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge Carty Unit (http://www.fws.gov/ridgefieldrefuges/RNWRMap.htm). Did I say Sauvie Island was our best birding? Well, maybe I was wrong. This refuge was awesome! We did a long walk through the Carty Unit, and saw the following (the list sounds a little more interesting than the walk felt, though the terrain was beautiful):
-Killdeer
-Trumpeter Swans
-Bewick's Wren
-Varied Thrush (the forest was full of them!! Think of the most Robins you've ever seen in one place, flitting out of the bushes everywhere, and then change them into Thrushes, who flit out and land on nearby tree branches so you can totally view them, photograph them, listen to them call and tweet. I never knew there were so many Varied Thrushes in the world!)
-Spotted Towhee
-Scrub Jay
-Black-capped Chickadee
-Bald Eagle
-Hawks (several, including Red-Tailed)
-Song Sparrow
-Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
-Kingfisher
-Geese (we saw *thousands* of them flying in one loose chevron after another, waaaaaay off in the distance, and from the "black-and-white, black-and-white" that we saw, plus the far-off sound of them calling, we finally decided that they were Snow Geese... but later we actually saw, close up, a smaller goose version, a Canada Goose Subspecies according to our birding books, though we're not *exactly* sure which one, so that threw our whole "snow goose" identification into question...)
-Northern Harrier
2) After leaving the Carty Unit, we went back out of town toward the 4.2 mile Auto Tour Route.
Staying in the car and driving around might not sound too appealing to a naturalist/birder, but this drive was *WELL* worth it. The habitat is amazing, and we saw SO many neat birds, even though we were in a rush to get through the drive in the approx. 40 minutes that remained before the 6pm gate closing. As we quickly drove through and made our best judicious use of time, we saw:
-Red-winged Blackbirds
-Ring-necked Ducks
-Northern Pintail
-Green-winged Teal
-American Widgeon
-Cinnamon Teal
-Great Blue Heron (up close along the drive and in perfect G.B.H. poses! Wow, beautiful!)
-Northern Shoveler (including a whole section of lake full of them!)
-Northern Harrier
-American Coot
-Trumpeter Swan
-Bufflehead
-Tree Swallow
-Golden-crowned Sparrow
-Hooded Merganser
-Red-breasted Sapsucker
-Red-winged Hawk
-Canadian Geese (smaller subspecies)
and the topper at the very end before we sped through the soon-closing gate...
-Short-eared Owl, hunting low and circular over a field right alongside the road!!!

We arrived home late Tuesday evening, but just to top things off...
**Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Kenmore, WA, after exiting my apartment/house and turning in my car down the street that intersects mine, was totally stunned to see a bird suddenly come from "nowhere" and zoom underneath or alongside my car. I thought to myself, "Whaaaaa?!?". It was roughly the size of a Robin, but I've never seen a Robin fly with such intensity or determination. The bird landed on the lawn of a house a short distance down the road ahead of me. I saw a cacophony(?) of wings, and it seemed that birds of various sorts, brown vs. black, were attacking one other, apparently one brown bird against several black. When my car rolled past several seconds later, I was stunned to see what was obviously a small hawk or a falcon, literally sitting on-top-of some sort of black bird only slightly smaller than itself. I was able to put my car into reverse and back up enough so that I could sit directly across from this spectacle, the hawk sitting atop a "smooshed" bird that I can only assume was a Starling, literally smashed and pinned down to the ground, unmoving by that point. Wow!! The hawk looked a little stunned itself, to have me there alongside it, witnessing its aggression and conquest. We both stared at one another for a few moments, until by sheer force I pulled myself away, aware that I was already several minutes later than I wanted to be in leaving to drive to an appointment. Later, in examining the pictures and description in one of our birding books, I determined that it was pretty clearly a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. Awesome!

Cheers, and happiest of birding to you all,

Christy Jobe, Kenmore WA
and Larry Baxter, Camano Island, WA
christyrj at hotmail.com