About a half-dozen birders braved the prophesized high temperatures for this outing. We decided to go to the trails behind Riverbend Hospital, because it is very shady there, while still offering a worthy variety of birding action.

As it happened, perhaps because of the cool breeze, none of us felt uncomfortably hot and we continued until past 11am.

Red-breasted Sapsuckers abound at this site each time we bird there. As per usual, we saw several fledgeling RB Sapsuckers, including one laying flat on a mossy limb to allow ants to "de-lice" it. We've seen this behavior before - at Riverbend - but last time it was a Brown Creeper doing it.

There was quite a chorus of birds singing as we walked along the slough/side channel of the McKenzie River. At least twice we heard a Cassin's Vireo but never did see it. That's no surprise though. I've heard them many times without hardly ever seeing them. A Kingfisher rattled by a few times unseen before we finally found it perched on a fallen log in the river. Sapsuckers, Towhees, Goldfinches and Western Wood Pewees were singing off and on through the morning, and we got good looks at all of those. A baby Robin made a harsh "KKKKKKKKKK" sound several times. I'd never heard that sound come from any Robin before. In fact, the day before this outing I heard the same sound - for the very first time - at Mt Pisgah. It was coming from a dense patch of vegetation, and I thought it was a volunteer working with a rake, hacking at blackberries or the like. But there was no person there so left not knowing what was making that harsh grating sound ... until the next day at Riverbend.

The highlight of the day for me was seeing a Chipping Sparrow. These are not considered rare, but the last time I saw one was two or three years ago at Mt Pisgah. I didn't get a photo of that one, but this time I did.

Thanks to Janet Naylor for making the bird list for today’s walk.

Weather sunny and getting hot, but a nice breeze.
8:15am. - 11:00am.

Bird list: (Not in any particular order)