provided by:

Priscilla Sokolowski

Eugene, OR

Photos from personal trips  AND trips with

“Birds of Oregon and General Science” (BOGS)


Priscilla’s  

Bird photography



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BOGS Delta Ponds (north)
June 24, 2021

We had a a pretty sizable group, perhaps 12-20 people though I didn't count them. Folks were in a cheerul mood. Some were doing some pretty serious birding and tended to stay near Steve, while others, myself included, lagged behind and got caught up on peronal news and getting reconnnected. Quite a few interesting birds were seen, as Janet's list below will attest.

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BOGS Bird List
June 24, 2021;
Leader: Steve Barron

Directions:
The north Delta Ponds are at the Goodpasture Island Rd access to the Delta Ponds. It is north of Valley about 3/4 mile and has a paved parking lot with a port-a-potty at the parking lot. It is across from "Boulders on the River" apartments.

Where we walked today:
From the north Delta Ponds parking area, we walked south to the small gravel parking lot, then E to just before Delta Highway, then north to the two observation peninsulas. Then we walked back to the main parking area, and went a bit north then east to the north-side observation platform.

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Bird list for BOGS walk at north Delta Ponds
Thurs. 06-24-21, 8am. - 11am. (summer hours.)
Weather: Cloudy. 60 to 72 degrees.
Leader: Steve Barron.
-compiled by Janet Naylor

Bird list:

  1. Canada goose
  2. Wood duck
  3. Gadwall
  4. Mallard
  5. Great blue heron
  6. Green heron
  7. Turkey vulture
  8. Osprey
  1. Hawk, smallish accipiter, ? sp.
  2. Mourning dove
  3. Belted kingfisher
  4. Northern flicker
  5. Western wood peewee - heard only
  6. California scrub jay
  7. Barn swallow
  8. Violet-green swallow
  9. Tree swallow
  1. Black capped chickadee
  2. Bushtit
  3. European starling
  4. Cedar waxwing
  5. Orange-crowned warbler - heard only
  6. Spotted towhee
  7. Song sparrow
  8. Red-winged blackbird
  9. Finch, ? species
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HIGHLIGHTS

  • Seeing 2 ospreys on the osprey pole nest along the west path, right next to Goodpasture Island Rd.
  • Seeing so many Great blue herons (11 total, 5 of which were at the heronry by the long northeast pond.)
  • Seeing 3 green herons.
  • Back at the north parking lot, some of us saw a female mallard on the parking lot asphalt, and a little later saw 5 very small ducklings there, but no mother. A few minutes later, mom was in the water, and the ducklings were at the bottom of the vertical drop from the parking lot to the pond bank, scrambling down the bank to join mom, who was in the water quietly calling them. Apparently mom went down to the water, called the ducklings, and they probably jumped down 5 or 6 feet to get to her.

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Most common birds today:
Mallards (54) and Canada geese (48).

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Anti-highlights:
A lot of Canada geese (34, about three-quarters of which were young ones), plus some mallards (6, some of which were young), at the south gravel parking lot. As we came near, they approached us, as though used to being fed by humans. Not good.

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Of interest:

  • Male mallards are going into eclipse plumage. We saw one male mallard with just part of the iridescent green left on its head, while the rest of it was already nondescript.
  • Seeing a turkey vulture in a tree with its wings out and head down under its wing for a minute
  • Seeing a female wood duck hanging out with a female mallard.
  • Seeing 2 nutria swimming, each with its head and rump out of the water
  • Seeing quite a lot of Tansy ragwort with no Cinnabar moth caterpillars, plus 2 plants (one plant in flower) that were covered with caterpillars (40 on one plant, 20 on another.) Almost as though a single moth or maybe 2 moths had flown in and laid eggs, which had not yet grown to make more moths to infect more plants. The plant and moth have a several-year-long boom and bust cycle.

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