Saturday, Carol Ledford, my 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/ ). I was there from about 8Am until 3PM.

Highlights:

AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN: Five were still seen on Rest Lake for the first half of the day, but they had left by 2PM.

YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT: Carol and I listened to and I saw this Beauty. It was moving around near the Roth Unit gate on the SE side of the Auto Tour after you leave the E side of Rest Lake. It only popped up for a few seconds, but it shown brightly as it sung from an exposed perch atop the brambles before dropping out of sight for good.

LAZULI BUNTING: Before Carol joined me, I walked the entrance canyon. As I walked uphill, near the top I heard a LAZULI BUNTING singing. I found it atop a Western Red Cedar. When I was walking back down, about midway down, the LAZULI BUNTING flew down to the road surface and was bugging at the edge, and then got some grit from the road surface. Nice!

BULLOCK'S ORIOLE: Both parents were extremely actively feeding three chatty "babies" this morning. This is from the nest that hangs directly over the road at the E end of the entrance bridge. I expect these three will fledge any day this coming week, as they looked fully-grown ac they poked above the nest stretching toward dutiful parents. Mom and Dad are working their feathers to the quill to keep these loudly begging kids fed.

Will Clemons
SW of Portland
willclemons AT Yahoo dot com

Birding:
The best excuse for getting outdoors
And avoiding chores

Complete list of 67 species seen / heard:

Pied-billed Grebe
AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Gadwall
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Redhead
Ruddy Duck
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Virginia Rail (heard only)
Sora (heard only)
American Coot
Killdeer
Wilson's Snipe
Mourning Dove
Vaux's Swift
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Western Wood-Pewee
Willow Flycatcher
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee (seen in entrance canyon)
Red-breasted Nuthatch (heard only, entrance canyon)
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
House Wren
Winter Wren (seen in entrance canyon)
Marsh Wren
Swainson's Thrush (seen/heard in entrance canyon)
American Robin
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Orange-crowned Warbler (heard only, entrance canyon)
Yellow Warbler (Kiwa Trail)
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler (heard only, entrance canyon)
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT (seen/heard near Roth Unit Gate
Western Tanager (seen/heard in entrance canyon)
Spotted Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Black-headed Grosbeak
LAZULI BUNTING (seen/heard in entrance canyon)
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
BULLOCK'S ORIOLE (seen feeding 3 babies near R/R)
House Finch
American Goldfinch

Seen by others but not by me:

Belted Kingfisher: by Paul Forsgren