>From about 7:30a until 4:30p, my dear old Mom (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/ ).

Carol Ledford arrived around Noon and birded with us for the balance of
the afternoon. Before Carol arrived, we birded one loop with Clay
Davis who is pretty good at finding American BITTERN. This morning
Clay found Three.

Highlights:

NORTHERN SHRIKE: We saw this handsome little killer on a "boundary
sign" shortly after where the loop road leaves Rest Lake for good. The
SHRIKE, then flew over to the brambles near the Roth Unit gate and
fence line. The SHRIKE was enough to allow my 92 year old Mom to get a
good patient view of this cute little predator. Mom even remarked
(without prompting) on the "hooked" end of its bill

SWALLOWS: Mainly TREE SWALLOWS, but I also saw one CLIFF SWALLOW. In
all, there were hundreds of SWALLOWS there today.

BALD EAGLE: At least 10-12 spread out over the loop. There are
currently 2 adult pairs, and sub-adults of all varieties. One adult
BALD EAGLE took some sort of Duck/Coot from the shallow wetland N of
The Blind and carried it toward the trees further North. Unfortunately
for us, we were watching long distance from the E side of the loop
road. Another adult was seen in a high fly (clearly not hunting) over,
that still got about a Thousand excited Cackling Geese up off the
grasses. Stay afraid, Stay alive, as the water fowl say.

TUNDRA SWAN Flocks: Today was interesting, only from a numbers
standpoint. The numbers have been steadily dropping over the last
month and change. Over the last week or so, the numbers have been
fluctuating Up and Down. A bit over a week ago, I saw a max of 15,
then later saw close to a hundred. This morning on our first loop, we
saw close to 200. Around noon, we began seeing flocks fly in to Rest
Lake from somewhere to the W (maybe Bachelor Island, Scappoose Bottom,
or Sauvie Island). For a while there must have been close to a
Thousand TUNDRA SWAN on Rest Lake.

RIVER OTTER: Carol and I saw 6 OTTER from The Blind. Originally they
were on land S or The Blind, then they swam out into Rest Lake and were
seen eating fish. Nice. Early in the morning We saw 6 in Long Lake
and they crossed through a culvert and into the water control canal on
the N side of the road. Clay Davis also saw 5 in Lake River when he
arrived earlier. Additionally, one came over the dike and out onto the
road (for seconds) near the entrance booth and rest rooms.

MISSED: Expected but not seen were Rough-legged Hawk, Kingfisher,
Cinnamon Teal, Savannah Sparrow.

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


Complete list of 52 species seen / heard:

Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
American Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret (1 seen on E bank of Rest Lake )
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose
Tundra Swan
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
CANVASBACK (1 seen from The Blind )
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
HOODED MERGANSER (on water control canal S of Kiwa)
COMMON MERGANSER (on Lake River)
Ruddy Duck
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
COOPER'S HAWK (200 yds past Hunters' Gate)
Red-tailed Hawk
HARLAN'S RED-TAILED HAWK
DARK PHASE RED-TAILED HAWK
American Kestrel
American Coot
Herring Gull
RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER (active on tree, parking lot at The Blind)
Northern Flicker
NORTHERN SHRIKE
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
American Crow
TREE SWALLOW
CLIFF SWALLOW
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Bewick's Wren
Winter Wren
Marsh Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Spotted Towhee
Song Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird


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