Today (Saturday), from about 8a to 4p, my nonagenarian 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/ ).

After a treacherous drive up I-205 on the ice, and also some icy
patches between I-5 and the Refuge, Carol Ledford joined us around
11am, and together, we birded the balance of the day.

Highlights:

SNOW GEESE: On our first loop around, I saw about 30 SNOW GEESE on the
ice along with the hundreds of Tundra Swan. They were not there on our
subsequent loops.

VIRGINIA RAIL: While we were at The Blind, and I was scanning to no
avail for the Snow Geese I had seen earlier, Carol spotted a VIRGINIA
RAIL out the left side of The Blind. This is the same spot where Rail
nested this past Summer. A woman named Sarah was also there and got
some photos. Two other birders also saw the Rail before it went back
into the grasses. I would guess it was in the open for a least 5
minutes. All the water near The Blind was Ice, and the ground was
frozen; therefore, the VIRGINIA RAIL was acting more like a woodpecker,
hammering away at the frozen ground in search of some tasty morsels.
Needless to say, we were mesmerized, to see a VIRGINIA RAIL in the open
at this time of year, and for this long. Sweet!

SHORT-EARED OWL: This Owl was low on the bank of the dike on the E
side of Rest Lake. It sat about two feet up the bank from the iced
over water control canal between the road and the Lake. The Owl
watched us admiring it and was not about to move far in the cold rain.
It remained there moving only about two to three feet from where we
first noticed it. Carol and I helped Clay Davis, and another birder
find it.

AMERICAN BITTERN: Clay Davis immediately returned the favor, by
pointing out an AMERICAN BITTERN about 150 feet N of the Short-eared
Owl and in about the same position on the dike; one to three feet up
the dike from the ice.

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

Complete list of 58 species seen / heard:

Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
AMERICAN BITTERN
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
SNOW GOOSE
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose
Tundra Swan
Gadwall
EURASIAN WIGEON (N of "3 trees" on E side of Rest Lake near dike)
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
HOODED MERGANSER (5-water control canal on E side of Rest Lake)
COMMON MERGANSER (11- on Lake River, N & S of entrance bridge)
Ruddy Duck
Bald Eagle (at least 13 seen-trees & on ice-Rest Lake)
Northern Harrier
RED-SHOULDERED HAWK (1-50 yds before Hunters gate + 1-200 yds past)
Red-tailed Hawk
HARLAN'S RED-TAILED HAWK (atop one of the "3 trees" E side of Rest
Lake)
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (SE corner of Rest Lake on sign post)
American Kestrel
VIRGINIA RAIL (left side of The Blind)
American Coot
SANDHILL CRANE (at least 250 seen in the early morning)
KILLDEER (1 seen just past entrance booth)
Herring Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Mourning Dove
GREAT HORNED OWL
SHORT-EARED OWL
Red-breasted Sapsucker (heard in entrance canyon)
Northern Flicker
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch (seen & heard in entrance canyon)
White-breasted Nuthatch
Bewick's Wren
Winter Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
European Starling
Spotted Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
LINCOLN'S SPARROW (loop road on E side of Rest Lake)
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
WESTERN MEADOWLARK (on the dike, E side of Rest Lake)




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