Carol Ledford, met with my mother (Olive) and I, and together we birded the River "S" Unit at Ridgefield NWR (~4mi W of I-5 at Exit 14 in SW Washington; http://www.fws.gov/ridgefieldrefuges/ ).

We were there from about 8:30AM until 3PM.

Highlights:

RED-SHOULDERED HAWK: While we were at the junction of Canvasback Lake and Rest Lake, this beautiful hawk flew from Canvasback lake across the water control canal on the West edge of South Big Lake, and dropped into the grasses on the edge of S Big Lake. Earlier, Ken Meyer had alerted us to the presence of this pretty raptor near the end of the Oregon Ash woodland just before the road leaves Canvasback Lake. It caught some rodent, and took its prize to a nearby tree and began to dine. Before long an adult Red-tailed Hawk in gentle pursuit of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk cruised by without noticing the RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. The Red-shouldered protested loudly (as if to yell - 'hey, cant a hawk eat in peace without folks running through the dining room?'). The RED-SHOULDERED HAWK probably dropped the balance of its meal, and then moved a couple of times ending up in a prime frontal viewing position. We watched it for about 6-8 minutes.

COYOTE and RIVER OTTER were also seen.

Will Clemons
SW of Portland
willclemons AT Yahoo dot com

Birding:
The best excuse for getting outdoors
And avoiding chores

Complete list of 48 species seen / heard:

Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Snow Goose (7 seen on Rest Lake)
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose (Westerns and Duskys on Rest Lake)
Tundra Swan
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
COMMON MERGANSER (1 drake seen on Lake River)
RUDDY DUCK (1 seen on Rest Lake)
Bald Eagle (only 1 seen - juvenile)
Northern Harrier (1 male, + females and juveniles)
RED-SHOULDERED HAWK
Red-tailed Hawk
HARLAN'S RED-TAILED HAWK
DARK MORPH RED-TAILED HAWK
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (at least 4 individuals seen on the day)
DARK MORPH ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK
American Kestrel
MERLIN (seen over the S end of Schwartz Lake as it moved over Rest Lake and then disappeared over S Big Lake)
American Coot
Sandhill Crane (few heard, about 8-9 seen)
Killdeer (2 seen on the road right after the sign with the clock)
Wilson's Snipe (lots seen on Long lake)
Glaucous-winged Gull (seen eating a dead duck out on North Quigley Lake)
Downy Woodpecker (seen near R/R tracks)
Northern Flicker
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Bewick's Wren
Marsh Wren (2 seen just after the woodland ends - Canvasback Lake)
American Robin
European Starling
Spotted Towhee
Song Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Purple Finch (maybe 9-10 seen just after the woodland ends - Canvasback Lake)