tweeters


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It?s my first time posting so I hope this gets to the group. I live close to the nest where the Northgate Merlins were hatched and would like to report that at least one of the Merlins was killed. One neighbor reports a car killed it. seems that one neighbor has taken to filling a pothole very close to the side of the road with water for the birds?and the?merlin was killed close by. I?did not see the body so I don?t know if it was one of?the tagged birds. ?My daughter reports a large pile of feathers. Several of the Merlins are still in the area and I see them once or twice a week. And they are still using the pothole for water. So lets hope they have better luck. ?The Merlins were good for our neighborhood and have many of us looking into birding as a hobby. My wife and I are retired and have been looking for something we can do together and so far this is fun and a new challenge. We just returned from 8 days birding in Eastern Washington and Oregon. It all looked simple enough until we got to abert lake in Oregon with tens of thousands of birds and realized we had very little idea about identification, complicated by the mass amount of different species. And we discovered that standing in 93 degree heat in a place with no trees and no shade, with no place to pull of the road and?looking at bird books was a tough start. It was like going to a zoo full of animals that look wonderful20but you have to read the tags to find out their names. Ok so we have started a checklist that includes some kind of pop up shade,( any ideas ? ) and?better books, and a lot more insect repellant. We also went to Summer Lake and the?Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near burns Oregon and drove the twenty-five mile road that snakes through the swamp. Again no trees much and no shade and its hot but so many birds made it fun. We returned to Seattle up the Oregon coast had a great trip and are planning on doing it again this fall. So we are working on identification and I have tried to find any helps that I can. I looked for flash cards but found none so I may have to make my own. All this, thanks to the Merlins at Northgate. Funny how small wonders can change your direction. One last point on Eastern Oregon back roads if you go make sure you fill up with gas every time you can. We found so many stations closed on the back roads it was a challenge to find gas. My understanding is that a lot of places have shut down because of the high gas prices. ( $4.99 a gallon in summer lake ) seems the motor homes just are not traveling anymore and campers are staying closer to home. ?Many small towns are struggling from the lost income. We kept 150 miles of gas in our car at all times and it saved us at least once. Not so lucky for the thousands of motorcycles returning from Sturgis motorcycle rally, many of them with small tanks were struggling and sharing g
as.???? ?


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Jerry boen


Northgate


Jerry338 at aol.com