BOGS Kirk Pond
July 22, 2021

Bird list for BOGS walk at Kirk Pond,
Thurs. 07-22-21, 8am. - 11am. (summer hours.)
Weather: Sunny, 56deg. - 68deg.
Leader: Steve Barron.

Directions:
To reach Kirk Pond, go north on 99 to Clear Lake Rd., turn left and go past Orchard Point at Fern Ridge and continue to where the Dam is visible on the left side of the road. The parking lot is on the right, just below the dam.

Where we walked today:
We walked from the W end of Kirk Pond up by the dam to the lake, then we walked E along the N side of Kirk Pond to a little inlet or creek about 2/3 of the way along the pond.

Most common birds:
(Not counting approx. 115 starlings): Western grebes and American robins (11 of each.)

HIGHLIGHTS

• Seeing 11 Western grebes and 2 Clark's grebes on Fern Ridge reservoir lake. (ID'd, per Steve's scope.)
• Seeing a male tanager at the top of a tall conifer.
• Hearing a second Western tanager's "Priddick" call; a bit like a cricket, but just a bit more musical.
• Seeing so many Northern flickers (6).
• Seeing an adult flicker feeding a not-quite-full-sized young one (possibly ants) on the lawn.
• Hearing a Northern flicker's "interaction call", which sounded like a garbled Acorn woodpecker. It's different from their other sounds.
  (Priscilla writes: Betsy and several other folks thought they were hearing Acorn Woodpeckers. I wasn't so sure. I told Betsy "I've heard Northern Flickers make that sound we're hearing". She replied doubtfully, 'Yeah, somewhat.' I think that because I've had problems with my hearing in recent decades, sometimes people don't realize that I used to hear well enough for many decades of birding, to have learned the calls of most of our local birds. If I hear it well enough, I usually know what it is. My comment must have raised some doubt in Betsy's mind as to whether we were hearing an Acorn Woodpecker or Northern Flickers making one of their less common calls. So she checked one of her birding apps and a few minutes later announced that the call we were hearing was as an "interaction call" made by Northern Flickers. She was excited about it and played it for us on her phone app.)
• Hearing two Wren tits. (Sound is like a bouncing ball.)
• Seeing three White-breasted nuthatches (and hearing a fourth.)
• Seeing a White-breasted nuthatch walking down a vertical trunk, below a robin in the same tree.
• Seeing 2 Green herons flying.
• Watching an osprey hovering over the pond. It hovered for quite a long while, like a kestrel. There was a decent north wind, which may have helped.

Anti-Highlights:
1. Three lots of fishing line, two in trees, and one in the grass. Steve and another participant removed what they could reach using steve's tripod, so wildlife won't get tangled in it.
2. Three dead carp left on the bank of the stream. Presumably not good eating.
3. Not seen today: Egrets and Mallard ducks. (There seem to be fewer this summer.)

Of interest:

• Seeing ripe cascara berries (a favored bird food), also a few ripe blackberries.
• Seeing what we thought might be a Varied thrush on the lawn (wrong season for Varied thrushes), that turned out to be a juvenile robin, with lots of speckling on its head.
• Seeing approx. 100 starlings doing a bit of synchronized flying.