BOGS Dorris Ranch
Sept. 30, 2021

Bird list for BOGS walk at Dorris Ranch,
Thursday 09-30-21, 9:00am. - 11:24am.
Weather: Mostly sunny, then partly cloudy. 57 to 68 degrees.
Leaders: Donna Albino and Betsy Huffsmith.

Location: Dorris Ranch in Springfield.
Please park at the paved parking lot where there are rest rooms. We plan to walk on the bike path.

Directions from Eugene:
Go east on Broadway which then turns into Franklin all the way past the two round a bouts and across the bridge into Springfield. The road then becomes Main St. At the first street you come to (S. 2nd St.) take a right. There will also be a “Dorris Ranch” brown sign that tells you to turn right. Follow this for about a mile till you come to a stop sign. Continue straight and under the arch into Dorris Ranch and go left to the paved parking lot.

Covid:
**Masks are required** Per 09-20-21 e-mail

Where we walked today:
We parked at the small parking lot just inside and to the left of the front entrance, next to a toilet building. Then we walked south along a fairly wide asphalt bike path until we got almost to the river. When the path bent to the left, with a chain-link fence running along it, we went another 30 yards or so, and then returned the way we came.

Bird list

Most common birds today:
Acorn woodpecker (16: 13 seen, 3 heard.);
Next most common: Steller's jay (8).

Acorn woodpecker locations today:
At parking just inside and to left of main entrance, at toilet bldg.: 6 seen plus 2 heard.
Approx. 200 yards S of toilet building, just before a tiny path off to the R: 6 seen here.
Further S on this main path that goes S from toilet building: 1 seen, plus 1 heard only.

Not birds:
Squirrel (? species) - heard only.

Highlights and of Interest:

• Seeing a light-morph Red-tailed hawk in a tree. No belly band or back V, but upper side of tail was maroon.
• Seeing a Scrub jay with an acorn in its beak. Might be going to stash it somewhere.
• Seeing a group of 6 Steller's jays, on the main path at a little bridge over a dry creek, with a 0.5 mile marker. These Steller's jays were being very raucous. Their sounds included imitating a Red-tailed hawk, also some very fast beak clatters, and also some weird sounds, as well as more usual jay sounds. They appeared to be a family or two families of jays, which might explain all the weird sounds.
• Hearing a Chestnut-backed chickadee that was almost drowned out by a noisy Black-capped chickadee, in the area along the chain-link fence part of the path. Both were confirmed by Betsy's phone app.
• Plus, in the same area: Hearing a squirrel sounding like a saw-whet owl and/or merlin and/or squirrel; not just to our human ears, but also to Donna's Audubon phone app, which listed all 3 species for the sound. We did not see the squirrel, so were not sure which species.