BOGS VIDEOS: Fall 2019; Winter 2020

BOGS Raptor Run #2, Dec 19, 2019

Male Northern Harrier, flying
Smith Rd, Linn County, Dec 19, 2019

Non-BOGS; Scouting trip Linn County, Dec 12, 2019
American Kestrel Hovering

American Kestrel hovering
Smith Rd, Linn County, Dec 12, 2019

Scouting for Raptor Runs, Davis Rd, Dec 9, 2019
Killdeer Flock making "chittering" noise

Killdeer Flock- "chittering" and walking away
Scouting for Raptor Runs, Davis Rd, Dec 9, 2019

Killdeer Flock- ghostly quiet and motionless
(They had been walking and chittering when we stopped alongside them, then when we stopped car and rolled down windows, they became motionless and ghostly quiet Scouting for Raptor Runs, Davis Rd, Dec 9, 2019

Scouting Trips for Raptor Runs: Dec 9 and Dec 7, Linn County
Several short videos of a Burrowing Owl

Burrowing Owl, Standing, looking around;
Blueberry Rd, Linn County, Dec 9, 2019

Scouting Trip for Raptor Runs, Dec 7, 2019

Burrowing Owl, Standing, then flying away -slow motion. looking around;
Blueberry Rd, Linn County, Dec 7, 2019

Burrowing Owl standing, looking around, then flying off - (normal speed)
Blueberry Rd, Linn County, Dec 7, 2019

BOGS Hileman County Park, Nov 21, 2019: River Otter video

River Otters playing Beacon Channel
Hileman County Park, Nov 21, 2019

BOGS Delta Ponds, Nov 14, 2019: River Otter videos

River Otter on log in Willamette River - close to shore!
Delta Ponds Nov 14

River Otter in ponds, eating a fish close to us.
Delta Ponds Nov 14

BOGS Delta Ponds, Nov 14, 2019: MUSKRAT Swimming next to bike path

Muskrats are rarely seen but we do have them at Delta Ponds. A few years ago I photographed one close enough to see critical field marks and made a web page documenting the event. Here is a link to that page of photos: MUSKRAT!!
At the end of our Delta Ponds walk on Nov 14, a Muskrat was swimming in the narrow channel right alongside the bike path. Below is the video I took:

BOGS Finley Wildlife Refuge Trip, Nov 7, 2019

Rough-legged Hawk - hovering
Finley Refuge Nov 7, 2019
BOGS Finley Trip

Large Flock Canada Geese Flying into McFadden Marsh and Landing
McFadden Marsh, BOGS at Finley Wildlife Refuge
Nov 7, 2019

SWAN SOLILOQUY
The following video of Tundra Swans features some fairly close footage of them in McFadden Marsh at Finley Refuge Thursday, Nov 7. Our birding group spent more than a morning there.
You will hear, over the course of this video, 4 or 5 single calls by one swan. It is loud and high pitched - you can't miss it. What's harder to imagine is what a group of 100 of these swans all calling at once sounds like as they fly past.
I was at Finley in 1975 one day of my first Winter in the Willamette Valley, standing on a hilltop - up on Woodpecker loop trail - as the sun was setting when in the far distance I heard what I took to be the sound of children playing excitedly. I know I smiled at the sound, because I was feeling happy too, having had a satisfying afternoon at Finley Refuge. I went back to my reverie as I watched daylight's shade shifting from yellow towards orange over the landscape before me. In a few minutes, again, the sound of the children, but much louder, much closer this time ... but they could not have gotten that much closer in those few elapsed minutes. I was puzzled. Moments later, then again ... but they didn't sound like children anymore ... the individual "voices" were more melodic, not as staccato as excited children. And there were many voices, not just a few. I raised my binoculars in the direction of the sound and scanned near the eastern horizon. Then I saw them. A flock of white birds wheeling maybe 1/4 mile away low over Cabell Marsh. I was breathless with excitement. My first Whistling Swans! That was their official name back then, a name I find more romantic than the name given them now - "Tundra Swans."
Two years later I lived for one Winter, one mile from Fern Ridge Dam in a very large farmhouse built by a rich man who was certain the railroad being planned was going to pass through Alvadore, which didn't come to pass. I would sit in a rocking chair on the full-width covered front porch at sunset and wait for them. Without fail, four to six hundred Whistling Swans would fly lover over the house, calling musically on their way to the reservoir where they would spend the night safe from predators. Enchanting Music for the soul.
One night that winter, I could not sleep. At midnight I got out of bed, dressed and took a walk towards the reservoir. In the quiet lonely darkness of night, a pair of Whistling Swans flew high over me, calling, also heading towards the protective water of the reservoir. Kindred sleepless spirits, they cheered me that night, forging within me, yet a stronger bond.
So whenever I hear Whistling Swans, as I still favor calling them, my mind is soothed by these memories of nature's magic.

Tundra Swans calling, preening ...
McFadden Marsh, BOGS at Finley Wildlife Refuge
Nov 7, 2019

McFadden Marsh Tundra Swans...

Sounds of McFadden Marsh ... Tundra Swans ... Geese ... Ducks... Coots ...
McFadden Marsh, BOGS at Finley Wildlife Refuge
Nov 7, 2019

Non-BOGS Vaux's Swifts Fall Migration: "Into the Chimney"

VAUX'S SWIFTS at Condon Hall (18th & Agate, Eugene) Sept. 11, 2019