Today, my Mom (Olive) and I birded with Carol Ledford on 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 8:15AM until 3:45PM, and it was pretty rainy most of the time.

Highlights:

COMMON TEAL: This Teal has been at RNWR for over a month, but it keeps moving around, so you need to look at all Green-winged Teal .

MERLIN: Carol spotted this Little Beauty while we were scanning Long Lake. It flew from the snag it was perched on, and we lost it shortly after we both saw it.

VIRGINIA RAIL: We heard one and saw two VIRGINIA RAIL at the road edge of South Quigley Lake about 40 feet beyond the S Quigley turnout.

Will Clemons
SW of Portland
willclemons AT Yahoo dot com

Birding:
The best excuse for getting outdoors
And avoiding chores

Complete list of 54 species seen / heard:

Pied-billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose
Tundra Swan
Wood Duck
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
COMMON TEAL
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Rufous Morph Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
MERLIN
VIRGINIA RAIL
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Dunlin
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Snipe
Rock Pigeon
Great Horned Owl
Northern Flicker
Western Scrub-Jay
American Crow
COMMON RAVEN
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Bewick's Wren
Winter Wren
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Savannah Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
House Finch