Today, my mother (Olive) 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/ ).
It was pretty foggy when we arrived around 9:30, but
it lifted within a couple of hours. All in all it was
a very nice day.

Highlights:

GREATER YELLOWLEGS Chase: This sighting was quite
curious. We could hear GR YELLOWLEGS from the
entrance fee Kiosk, but thought it was ordinary. When
we got to Long Lake we saw several, but two
individuals were the cause of most of the calling.
While we watched there for four minutes or so, one was
continually flying/running after the other and
occasionally landing atop the back of the fleeing
bird, more than once dunking it under water. It
seemed as though the lead bird was more pestered than
really threatened. Strange. I am assuming that the
chaser wanted territory to itself, and the lead bird
just kept hunting and eating as best it could. The
chaser was wasting a Lot of energy, but just would not
give up the chase.

NORTHERN SHRIKE: Seen atop a 25ft brushy deciduous
tree near the SE corner of Canvasback Lake. This is
at the corner where the road turns E and goes along
the S side of Rest Lake. This is a binocular ID. As
I was setting up the scope on a window mount, I was
forced to move the car due to traffic behind me. Once
they passed, the Shrike was gone. I say this only
because Roger Windemuth took a photo of a LOGERHEAD
Shrike in late October. I'm 95% confident this one
was a NORTHERN SHRIKE, but would liked to have
observed it a bit longer.

WHITE-TAILED KITE: Seen from barely beyond the Kiwa
Trail parking lot, this JUVENILE W-T KITE was about
150-200 yards E of the road, atop a deciduous tree.
The light was decent and I had an excellent scope view
using the window mount.

CANVASBACK: Several seen in quite good light. Males
and females were seen, around 16 or so, split between
Rest Lake (4) and South Big Lake (~12) (just S of Rest
Lake).

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

Complete list of 51 species seen / heard:

Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Greater White-fronted Goose (only 1 seen )
Cackling Goose (thousands)
Canada Goose (under a hundred)
Tundra Swan (shy of 2 hundred)
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail (hundreds)
Green-winged Teal
CANVASBACK
Bufflehead
HOODED MERGANSER (1 pair on Long Lake)
WHITE-TAILED KITE
Bald Eagle (1 sub adult
near The Blind)
Northern Harrier (lots)
Red-tailed Hawk (plenty, mostly
juv.)
American Kestrel (a few)
American Coot
SANDHILL CRANE (heard only today)
GREATER YELLOWLEGS (a few on Long Lake)
Wilson's Snipe (2 seen on Long
Lake)
Gull (Species)
Belted Kingfisher (1 seen on Long
Lake)
Red-breasted Sapsucker (2 seen)
Northern Flicker
NORTHERN SHRIKE
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Bushtit
White-breasted Nuthatch (1 seen, 3 heard)
Bewick's Wren (2 seen, 2
heard)
Marsh Wren (5 seen, 4
heard)
Golden-crowned Kinglet (a few seen)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (perhaps a dozen
seen)
American Robin
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Spotted Towhee
Savannah Sparrow (2 seen on road E
side of Rest Lake
Song Sparrow
LINCOLN'S SPARROW (1 seen near pkng lot at
Blind)
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
WESTERN MEADOWLARK
Purple Finch

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