Subject: [Tweeters] Clark County Cacklers
Date: Nov 7 21:47:10 2010
From: Scott Ramos - lsr at ramoslink.info


Tweets,

Made a trip to Vancouver Lake and surrounding fields this past Saturday,
plus some time at Ridgefield NWR.

Vancouver Lake itself was largely devoid of birds but had 2 Common
Mergansers near the shore and half a dozen Western Grebes far into the
lake. The trail at the north end of the park yielded 2 Wood Ducks in the
slough and a few Purple Finch near the top of an ash tree. The action,
however, was in the fields across the road from the park. There were
easily 7-8000 Cackling Geese, much smaller numbers of Canadas, plus at
least 4 Greater White-fronted Geese and about 2 dozen Snow Geese.
Joining the geese were close to 200 Sandhill Cranes, though most of
these were grouped at the south end of the field.

At Ridgefield's Carty unit, a Viriginia Rail was visible in one of the
small ponds at the north end of the trail. In the meadows beyond the
footbridge over Gee Creek, a flock of over 35 Wilson's Snipe launched
themselves, in groups of 5-8, until all were airborne. Single Brown
Creeper, White-breasted Nuthatch and Downy Woodpecker shared the same
branch of a large oak tree.

On the driving route, a pair of Cinnamon Teal were in the first pond. In
the first pond after the blind were 35 Greater Yellowlegs and a single
Long-billed Dowitcher. 3 Sandhill Cranes grazed the bank of the same
lake. About 8 Great Egrets were scattered around the loop, and a single
Tundra Swan flew in as I was leaving. Finally, two beautifully
'plumaged' and very healthy-looking Coyote were hunting in the meadows
at the southern end of the loop.

Scott Ramos
Seattle