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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THREE BOGS NOVEMBER 2019 Bird Trip Slideshows
November 7, 14, 21

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There are three separate slideshows on this web page. Scroll down to get from one to the next. Use the small arrow controls found above each slide show at the right side of the screen to begin begin an automatic slide show, or use the + button to move manually from one photo to the next in any slide show.

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BOGS Finley Wildlife Refuge
Nov 7, 2019;

Bird list for BOGS birding trip to Finley National Wildlife Refuge.
Thurs. Nov. 7, 2019, 9:45am-1:35pm.
Weather: fog, later clearing to sunny, 38 to 50 degrees, no wind.
Leader: Steve Barron.
-compiled by Janet Naylor

Bird list:

  1. Canada goose
  2. Cackling goose
  3. Snow goose
  4. Dusky goose
  5. Tundra swan
  6. American wigeon
  7. Mallard duck
  8. Shoveller duck
  9. Pintail duck
  10. Bufflehead
  11. Pied-billed grebe
  12. Great blue heron
  13. Great egret
  14. Bald eagle
  15. Northern harrier
  1. Hooded merganser
  2. Red-shouldered hawk
  3. Red-tailed hawk
  4. Rough-legged hawk
  5. Sharp-shinned hawk
  6. Northern harrier
  7. American kestrel
  8. American coot
  9. Killdeer
  10. Greater yellowlegs (heard)
  11. Mourning dove
  12. Hummingbird (sp? Anna's?)
  13. Acorn woodpecker
  14. Northern flicker
  15. Black phoebe
  16. Steller's jay
  17. California (scrub) jay
  1. American crow
  2. Black-capped chickadee
  3. White-breasted nuthatch
  4. Marsh wren
  5. Western bluebird
  6. Varied thrush
  7. American robin
  8. European starling
  9. Yellow-rumped warbler
  10. Spotted towhee
  11. Golden-crowned sparrow
  12. Song sparrow
  13. Dark-eyed junco
  14. Brewer's blackbird
  15. Red-winged blackbird
  16. Western meadowlark
  17. Lesser goldfinch
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Most common bird species today: Cackling geese (flying).

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HIGHLIGHTS

  • The rough-legged hawk
  • 2 Red-shouldered hawks
  • LOTS of Tundra swans
  • 4 Snow geese
  • all the usual waterfowl including a skein of approx. 2,500 Cackling geese flying
  • the bluebirds and meadowlarks and Black phoebes
  • the acorn woodpeckers in their oak grove
  • the white-breasted nuthatch on its usual tree at the visitor center
  • the Varied thrush
  • A Western bluebird sitting on a post eating a caterpillar
  • The Great egret day roost in a group of trees: 8 Great egrets, with a bald eagle sitting among the egrets
  • 2 bald eagles flying playing They almost did it, talons a couple of feet apart, a couple of times, then did it touching or almost touching talons. Then they flew away. Did not look aggressive, so maybe a mated pair. Both were adults, so not Mom teaching a kid.
  • Also the perfect weather.
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VARIOUS:
* Mammals: A coyote "bathroom" on one of the trails.
* Not mammals: 1 large bee, species not identified. No other flying insects.
* Plant kingdom: Grasses, reeds dry; lots but not all leaves have fallen; it varies with tree species.
* Water in the seasonal ponds and marshes: Not much yet; most of the seasonal smaller ponds are still dry or partly dry.
* The very large McFadden Marsh north of Bruce Rd. does have lots of water.
* Not present today: White pelicans, Turkey vultures, swallows, ravens, White-tailed kites, elk.

NOTEWORTHY:
* 8 empty barn swallow nests in the McFadden Marsh bird blind.
* Uncommon bird reported to eBird.org on Oct 19, not by BOGS, and not seen today: A Lewis's woodpecker north of Bruce Rd on Cheadle Loop Trail
* Some unusually large bird numbers; today we saw more than the usual numbers of these species: 14 Western bluebirds, 16 Western meadowlarks, 4 Black phoebes, 10 Great egrets, 4 Snow geese and approx. 260 Tundra swans.
* Weird stuff: Small conifer trees with HUGE orangeish cones at the Christmas tree farm inside the refuge: They looked almost like robins from a far distance, so some of us called them "cone birds".

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BOGS Delta Ponds Bird List
Nov 14, 2019;
Leader: Janet Naylor, Jennifer Haynes, and Priscilla Sokolowski

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Bird list for BOGS walk at south Delta Ponds, Thurs. 11-14-19, 9:15am-11:50pm.
Weather: highish fog, later clearing to clouds or high fog, 49 to 50 degrees (almost no temperature change), no wind.
-compiled by Janet Naylor with some editting for this web page by Priscilla

Bird list:

  1. Canada goose
  2. Domestic mostly-white duck
  3. Domestic-cross black duck
  4. Ring-necked duck
  5. Wood duck
  6. Gadwall
  7. American wigeon
  8. Mallard
  9. Green-winged teal
  10. Shoveller
  11. Common goldeneye
  12. Hooded merganser
  1. Pied-billed grebe
  2. Double-crested cormorant
  3. Great blue heron
  4. Great egret
  5. Bald eagle
  6. Red-shouldered hawk
  7. Red-tailed hawk
  8. American coot
  9. Gull, unidentified
  10. Belted kingfisher
  11. Northern flicker
  12. Black phoebe
  13. Steller's jay
  14. California (Scrub) jay
  1. American crow
  2. Black-capped chickadee
  3. Bushtit
  4. White-breasted nuthatch
  5. Brown creeper
  6. Bewick's wren
  7. Ruby-crowned kinglet
  8. American robin
  9. Townsend's warbler
  10. Yellow-rumped warbler
  11. Fox sparrow
  12. Golden-crowned sparrow
  13. Song sparrow
  14. Dark-eyed junco
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Most common birds:
Green-winged teal, Mallards, and American coots.
Runners-up: Shovellers and Wood ducks

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HIGHLIGHTS

  • Seeing a Ruby-crowned kinglet flash its ruby crown briefly twice.
  • Seeing a pair of Common goldeneyes, in water across the river a bit W of the bike bridge.
  • Getting a great look at a Red-shouldered hawk.
  • Seeing the 3 female ring-necked ducks in the large S pond. (A male had been seen in a different pond the day before).
  • River Otters! From the path W from the bike bridge, we saw a large otter swimming up to and then sitting on a log about 15 feet out from shore on our side of the river. It sprawled on the log in various contortions, grooming its feet and fur. Everyone had nice close views for 3 or 4 minutes.
    A short while later, another otter, a bit smaller, half ran/walked over the little dam between the river and the first smallish pond. At the N end of that same smallish pond, the same or another otter was diving for fish and eating; we saw it eat a four-inch fish, dive for another, then bring up and eat a second one. The fish were slightly flattish, with some silver and gray and a bit of yellowish in one place. This spot is where one of the BOGS folks saw a Great blue heron eating immature lamprey (called ammocoetes) around the same time. The otter was still there towards the end of our walk, on our return.
  • Muskrat! Several of our group saw an adult muskrat in the canal between the buildings and the bike path. It was swimming and feeding on leaves of water plants just 10 or 12 feet away and below us in that canal. It swam and fed for about 2 minutes, then swam under the bank under our feet and disappeared. We saw its black tail keeled vertically along its entire length, thicker at the base, not a horizontal slab like a beaver's. (Nutria are larger, with round tails.)

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Of Interest:

  • * Domestic ducks, white ones and black ones:
    On the river near the bike bridge: 2 male completely black ducks with some iridescent green on their heads. These are domestic black ducks (which were originally bred from mallards); the non-domestic native black duck is black with a definite brown head. They were with a group of about 15 domestic mostly-white ducks.
  • * Red-shouldered hawk:
    We got a really good look at a Red-shouldered hawk. It was in a tree on N side of the little canal between the buildings and the S pond. We heard it first, about 18 to 20 Kee-ah's in a row. Then we saw it near the top of a tree. It sat there for a minute, flew to another tree about 1/3 way down that tree, for a couple of minutes, then flew away. We got a really good look at its amazing markings.
  • * Wood ducks: In same large N pond as 36 Wood ducks the previous morning, but only half as many today: 15 or 16. Often the wood ducks if present are in the south and south-east ponds; the lower water levels may be affecting their food supply.
  • * Varied bird behavior (it can change from one day to the next):
    • UNLIKE the previous morning, when the small birds in the bushes along the river in the first stretch continued their activity while humans walked by, but either dropped or flew away when humans stopped walking: This different patch, today, the birds did their thing really close to us, some only 4 to 6 feet away, ignoring us although we were standing still. This is a little unusual, so it's worth noting.
    • * The previous morning the 36 wood ducks in the NW large pond that were close to the path did the same; they stayed put with walking humans but swam away when humans stopped. Today all the wood ducks were already fairly far away, towards the north end, also only 15 or 16 today.
    • * Bird activity: The "hot spot" moves.
      From the path W from the bike bridge: No small birds today, just one hint of movement. Very different from the previous morning, in which this spot was very active. Walking N along the path from the river: In the first 50 feet: Lots of little birds in one group of several small trees and shrubs along the edge of the pond and the path. The previous morning, this patch was very quiet; so all the action had changed location.
  • * Water levels:
    The water in the ponds is rather low, but not dry.

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BOGS Delta Ponds, Nov 14, 2019:
River Otter eating a fish in water next to bike path

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BOGS Delta Ponds, Nov 14, 2019:
MUSKRAT Swimming next to bike path
August, 2015

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 field marks with photos.

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

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There are additional videos of Swans from our finley trip on my VIDEOS PAGE.


BOGS Hileman County Park Bird List
Nov 21, 2019;
Leader: Steve Barron

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Bird list for BOGS walk at Hileman Park, Thurs. 11-21-19, 9:20am-11:42am.
Weather: Cold but dry: mid 30's to upper 40's, sunny, no wind.
Leader: Steve Barron.
-compiled by Janet Naylor with some editing for this web page by Priscilla

Bird list:

  1. Cackling goose
  2. Wild turkey
  3. Great blue heron
  4. Bald eagle
  5. Red-shouldered hawk
  6. Red-tailed hawk
  7. Greater yellowlegs (heard)
  8. Downy woodpecker
  9. Red-breasted sapsucker
  1. Northern flicker (heard)
  2. Black phoebe
  3. Steller's jay
  4. California scrub-jay
  5. American crow
  6. Black-capped chickadee
  7. Bushtit
  8. Brown creeper
  9. Bewick's wren
  10. Pacific (Winter) wren
  11. Golden-crowned kinglet
  12. Ruby-crowned kinglet
  1. Varied thrush
  2. Wrentit
  3. Spotted towhee (heard)
  4. Song sparrow
  5. House finch
  6. Pine siskin
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Most common birds:
Golden-crowned kinglets, followed by Black-capped chickadees, Pine siskins, Steller's jays and Wild turkeys (if one doesn't count the skeins of Cackling and Canada geese flying overhead.)
Not present today: Robins, Red-winged blackbirds.

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HIGHLIGHTS

  • All the Golden-crowned kinglets (about 15). Someone said we haven't seen any on BOGS walks for a long time.
  • A flock of about 10 Pine siskins.
  • A flock of 8 or 9 Wild turkeys.
  • 2 Red-breasted sapsuckers sitting near each other.
  • Seeing the 3 otters playing together in the water.
  • The perfect weather. Cold, dry, sunny, and no breeze.

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Of Interest:

  • * Bald eagle and Cackling geese:
    One of the BOGS members saw a Bald eagle flying, "herding" the flying Cackling geese; she said it was flying around behind them, and seemed to be affecting their direction of travel.
  • * Otters!: A group of 3 adult-sized otters were playing together in the water at the old boat landing; they would jump vertically 1/3 of the way out of water, then dive under the water. They did this for 2 or 3 minutes.
    About otters showing up in various places at different times, one of the BOGS members said: "An otter goes where an otter wants to go." Also, "If it's not fun, an otter won't do it."
  • * Water: At the old Hileman Park boat landing, the water runs from the Willamette a bit to the E, flowing westward. In past visits, this branch of the river has had sluggishly moving water, and large log jams along it. Today the water was moving freely, almost briskly, which suggests some of the log jams have been removed or reduced.

Wierd Stuff: Turkeys:
* (Priscilla writes: "As we approached a stand of tall fir trees, a fairly large bird flew out and away from us. None of us could quite tell what it was. Its body was larger than a Hawk. Its wingbeats were faster than a Heron. It appeared somewhat bluish as it flew away from us. Fortunately, several more flew out of the trees and someone recognized them as Turkeys. I (Priscilla) usually only see Turkeys on the ground and have only rarely seen them fly, so all this was a novel experience for me.")

* On seeing the turkeys, and the one Wild turkey that had landed high in a tree near us, Several folks said "Turkey in the tree" (a "play" on "turkey in the straw" which everyone seemed to get). Some said they liked the turkeys.

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BOGS Hileman County Park, 2019:
River Otters playing in Beacon Landing channel at Hileman County Park

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