Subject: [Tweeters] Ridgefield
Date: Oct 11 16:23:45 2007
From: Louise Rutter - louise.rutter at eelpi.gotdns.org


I had a pleasant morning birding the car loop at Ridgefield yesterday until
the rain set in at noon. I didn't find anything stand-out for the reserve,
just a nice selection of the birds you'd expect to be around in various
numbers in October. Cedar waxwings, barn swallows and savannah sparrows seem
to be the last of the summer lingerers, along with the two kettles of turkey
vultures circling and heading south (14 in one group, 6 in the other).
Yellow-rumps were the only warblers around, making up for the lack of
diversity with their numbers. Shorebirds were limited to dowitchers and a
single lesser yellowlegs. The more usual ducks were joined by a blue-winged
teal.



There were several great egrets around. Two of them were the most
cooperative individuals of that species I've ever found, actually consenting
to sit in a roadside waterway and be photographed instead of flapping off
into the distance before the car got within a hundred yards as most seem to.
There were multiple flights of sandhills overhead, and one small group
visible standing in a field. I pulled over to let another car pass at one
point, and that car flushed a bittern from the roadside reeds right ahead of
me.



Raptors were represented by large numbers of red-tails (including one darker
morph - a rufous?) and several active northern harriers. I found a single
immature red-shouldered hawk just before the photo blind. One of these days,
I'll get to see a red-shouldered that actually has red shoulders!



Louise Rutter

Kirkland