to add to Bill's list ... the Rough-legged Hawk was there on his/her
usual perch on the sign ... only saw him/her on one of my 3 loops ...

and, about 5:00 ish, Clay Davis and I were waiting for Short-eared
Owls (no luck), and we spotted a Meadowlark zoom by, identified by Clay ...

Lyn




At 07:51 PM 2/16/2008, Bill Clemons wrote:
> 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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Lyn Topinka
http://EnglishRiverWebsite.com
http://RidgefieldBirds.com