FIVE BOGS AUGUST 2019 Bird Trip Slideshows
August 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 2019

FIVE AUGUST SLIDE SHOWS on one page

There are five separate slideshows on this web page. Scroll down to get from one to the next. Use the small arrow controls found above each slide show at the right side of the screen to begin begin an automatic slide show, or use the + button to move manually from one photo to the next in any slide show.

Thursday Aug 29, 2019:
SUMMER BIRDING WRAPS UP

We wrapped up our Summer birding on Aug 29, with a "shorebird-intensive" at Fern Ridge Reservoir. Several uncommon to rare birds had been reported the two days before our visit, including a Red Knot, a Ruff, a Long-billed Curlew, Red-necked Phalaropes, a pair of American Avocets, and Baird's and Pectoral Sandpipers. A half-dozen or more very dedicated Eugene birders were on the prowl along with our group, but only a few were successful at finding the Ruff or the Red Knot. Roger Rob found ALL these birds according to his OBOL posting at 1:35pm, as did John Sullivan and a few others later in the afternoon. Of the less common birds, our group found the Phalaropes, the Avocets, and Don snapped a photo of a flying Pectoral Sandpiper, but we saw many other species which haven't been around since last Winter, so it was quite a preview of what is yet to come this Fall and Winter.

After being greeted by several beautiful Lincoln's Sparrows immediately after leaving the parking lot, and hearing the calls of Greater yellowlegs a number of times along the way, we made our way to Pond #5, which is on the left side of Royal while walking towards the observation platform. (Click HERE to see a map with the names of the ponds at Fern Ridge - giving both the names and numbers). When we arrived at the pond, numerous shorebirds and waterfowl were seen. Right up close were both a Greater Yellowlegs and a Lesser Yellowlegs. This was one of those rare opportunities to see both species side-by-side and compare their sizes and features. Western and Lesser Sandpipers presented the same kind of educational moment.

There were large flocks of Western and Lesser Sandpipers. There were small scattered groups of Green-winged Teal and Northern Pintail. There were more Greater Yellowlegs along distant shorelines. We ran into Sylvia Maulding, Scott McNeeley and Jim Hardman along the dike and got some updates from each of them about what birds were and were not being found that morning.

It was fun to suddenly find so many shorebirds and Winter waterfowl after a Summer of juvenile songbirds of fields and forest edges. We were fortunate to have both Steve's and Mary Lee's spotting scopes, because the bird-covered mudflats extended a long way out and the field marks of many birds were beyond the range of what binoculars could offer. We arrived around 8:30 and started for home around 10:45, so we had more than two hours out in the field enjoying the birds.