BOGS Kirk Pond
Oct. 3, 2019; Leader: Steve Barron

BOGS Green Island
Oct 10, 2019;

Bird list for BOGS walk at Green Island, Thurs. 10-10-19, 9:40am-1:05pm.
Weather: sunny, almost no wind, 38 to 52 degrees.
Leader: Donna Albino, and Don Holtgrieve from the McKenzie River Trust.
We parked at the locked gate and were escorted to the site's center, where we parked. We walked to the old ferry landing, then to one of the ponds on the south part of the island on the McKenzie River side, and to the Willamette River on the other side.
-compiled by Janet Naylor

Information from Don Holtgrieve from the McKenzie River Trust: The Green Island site used to belong to a family called Green. They passed it on, with an easement saying no development for ever. The McKenzie River Trust manages it. The 3 ponds on the island are different depths, deliberately, to foster different species. Most of the ponds are filled with groundwater. There is as much water going underground as on the surface. The water table is just a few feet down. No eels or lamprey in the ponds, but they have got invaders: Large-mouth bass. A biologist found 25 species of fish in the 3 small ponds, per Don Holtgrieve. Our group went to just one of the ponds.

Thanks:
Thank you to Donna Albino, who set up the BOGS guided tour with the McKenzie River Trust; to Don Holtgrieve from the Trust, who was our guide (thanks, Don, for your interest and information about the site; and to the McKenzie River Trust, for their work on this protected site.

Most common birds today at the site: 4 Western bluebirds and 4 Killdeer, and possibly 4 House finches.

Not birds:

• Mammals: 1 deer.
• Plant kingdom:
  Leaves on some trees are starting to turn to their fall colors.
  A 1-inch-long dark brown cottonwood seed pod was full of some thick juicy fluid and smelled quite sweet.
  But the juice was sticky, glue-like; hard to clean one's fingers.
  Picking up a dried cockle-burr seed pod; the barbs have hooked ends which stick to knitted gloves;
  hard to get them untangled. Sheep must have a terrible time with these things.

Weird: How many birders does it take to identify an "owl/quail"?
(Answer: Two photos, and 20 birders shaking our heads!)
The “owl/quail". At the locked gate when we arrived, a couple of hundred feet away, in grass just above a dirt path by a field: What looked like a burrowing owl! Even in scopes, it seemed to have closed round owl eyes in front on the face, a tiny triangular beak, and the low rounded owl top of the head, plus it was completely immobile. No legs showing, so if an owl, it was not standing up. Very plumped up, as it was still pretty cold (9:40am., 38 degrees). Some mottled markings all over front and sides (it was facing us.) All 20 of us looked through various scopes, and most of us thought owl. Sadly, various photos did ID it as a female California quail. Even in one pic. it still had an owlish look to its eyes and beak, but another pic. showed it did have a long quail beak, and some whitish California quail markings on the head.

Other weird stuff:
At the pond: One of the folks saw an orange-yellow shape on the far bank of the pond at the water's edge. A scope showed it was a large orange-yellow leaf, but several of us joked:
"A pretty leaf (bird), a charming leaf (bird)."
"And there was a leaf, a charming leaf, a rare leaf, a charming leaf;
Oh the leaf on the twig and the twig on the branch
and the branch on the tree, and tree in the bog,
and the bog down in the valley-O.
Hey ho the rattling bog, the bog down in the valley-O.
Hey ho the rattling bog, the bog down in the valley-O."
(Old folk tune sung by Janet)
It really was a lovely leaf.

BOGS Heron Park Bird List
Oct 17, 2019;
Leader: Steve Barron

Bird list for BOGS walk in the Heron Park area (S. end of Aspen St., Springfield)
Thurs. 10-17-19; 9:15am-11:45pm
Weather: sunny, raining at first, changed to cloudy, no wind, 50 to 54 degrees.
- compiled by Janet Naylor

Most common bird species today: American crows, then European Starlings.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Highlights (per various folks):
  4 female Common mergansers in the big fishing pond, at first 2 females sleeping on the water at the far side, heads tucked in, then 2 more females joined them. No males.
• The Townsend's warbler, and the Ruby-crowned kinglet.
• Getting out into the fresh air, and the rain stopping.
• Both the ashes and the oaks producing bumper crops of seeds this year.

Of interest:

• The male Mallard ducks and American wigeons are back in their full bright plumage.
• The male wigeons’ beak tops are pale bluish-white. Two weeks earlier they were all in nondescript subdued plumage.
• The fox sparrow stayed on its branch for 4 or 5 minutes, giving us a show. It was chocolate over most of it, and spotted under its rump. We couldn't see the little arrowheads on its breast, as it had its back to us. It "chip"ped over and over, flicking its tail and moving a lot in its place on its branch. It wasn't on the ground, so we didn't see it jump with both feet instead of running/walking one foot then the other.
• The Ruby-crowned kinglet bounced around a lot, always moving, flicking its wings; they are very hyper birds. It has a white eye-ring.
• Golden-crowned sparrow song: Slow "I'm so sad," in a set of 3 slow (downward pitch) whistled notes.
• A Red-tailed hawk flying, being mobbed by 3 crows.
• An American crow flying with an acorn in its beak.
• A "horde" of American crows bathing in the shallows across the river.

Weird stuff: The "goose/human":
First seen through many yellow and yellowish poplar leaves along the river: what seemed to be a goose drifting along in the river. When we got to a place we could get right to the river and see properly, it was a human swimming, just the head and shoulders showing. So: a "goose/human". Puts one in the spirit for Halloween.

BOGS North Delta Ponds
Oct. 24, 2019;
Leader: Betsy Huffsmith

TRIP SUMMARY by DON LAUFER
NORTH DELTA PONDS:
The walk started out in cold, heavy fog that became pretty patchy only near the end of the walk. Eighteen people braved the weather but the cold kept the activity of the songbirds down and the fog made for difficult viewing conditions anyway. The large maple by the parking area hosted a small raptor and we spent some time trying to decide between Sharp-shinned and Cooper's. Eventually the consensus decision was that it was a juvenile Sharp-shinned.

Just to the south of the parking area an Anna's Hummingbird was perched in an alder close to and below the path. He stayed there, flashing his gorget, for several minutes.

There were large numbers of geese and Wigeons on the water along with an unusually large number of Pied-billed grebes. The eastern ponds had a few Green-winged Teal, Ring-necked Ducks and Northern Shovelers mixed in with the Mallards. A Red-shouldered Hawk was seen flying overhead by a few. There was a conspicuous absence of Red-winged Blackbirds and very low numbers of sparrows and warblers.

Bird list for BOGS walk at the north Delta Ponds,
Thurs. 10-24-19, 9:15am-11:30pm.
Weather: Fog, 45 to 50 degrees, no wind.
Leader: Betsy Huffsmith
-compiled by Janet Naylor

Most common bird species today: Gadwalls, then Canada geese, then Pied-billed grebes.

Not present today: Red-winged blackbirds, sparrows, robins, swallows, flying insects

HIGHLIGHTS

• Just getting out, in the outdoors.
• The Sharp-shinned and Red-shouldered hawks.
• The Anna's hummingbird; getting to see its pink iridescence.
• 1 female Ring-necked duck, plus 2 male Ring-necked ducks in a different pond.
• In the air, flying: 16 Canada geese; flying in a perfect V, followed by 7 stragglers.

Of interest:

• Ring-necked ducks in the distance. Their profile is a similar shape to Scaup, including the bit of a crest at the back of the head. We saw the eye and beak markings that ID'd them as Ring-necked ducks
• The Sharp-shinned hawk has a quicker wing-beat when flying than a Cooper's hawk. This may be the only field mark one can see, as the other field marks are hard to see in the field.
• A flock on the water of 14 or 15 Canada geese with 1 solitary Cackling goose (a lot smaller) among them.
• A mixed flock on the water of about 25 Gadwalls and 5 Pied-billed grebes and 1 Green-winged teal.
• In a small flock of mallards, 2 females looked noticeably larger than the males.

Weird stuff:
* The VERY skinny lightweight-looking radio tower (hundreds of feet high) near the N pull-out, with its upper portions hidden in the fog.
* A reminder of natural processes and Halloween:
A dead young muskrat (probably), along the path near Delta Highway.
* "From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!"
- traditional Scottish prayer.

BOGS Golden Gardens Bird List
Oct 31, 2019;
Leader: Steve Barron

Bird list for BOGS walk at Golden Gardens,
Thurs. 10-31-19, 9:20am-11:30pm.
Weather: fog, 33 to 43 degrees, no wind. Air very dry,
so it did not feel damp and clammy.
Leader: Steve Barron.
- compiled by Janet Naylor

Most common bird species today:
Cackling geese (5 flocks of 25 to 40 per flock);
then Bushtits (15 or 16),
then Double-crested cormorants 12).

HIGHLIGHTS

• The gorgeous weather (sunny, cold, very dry, air clear).
• The bald eagle,
• the pied-billed grebe,
• the female common merganser, each of which sat still for 5 minutes, so we could really see them.
• The Townsend's warbler.
• The Peregrine falcon in the distance, ID'ed through a scope.
• The White-throated sparrow.
• The male Northern harrier flying back and forward in the open north fields, moderately low.

Of Interest:

• Just one American robin, and no Spotted towhees. Nehls, Aversa and Opperman in their book "Birds of the Willamette Valley", say Spotted towhees "are common residents, except at higher elevations in winter."
• American robins: many may be up in slightly higher elevations before they come down to the valley in winter. So; different versions of seasonal elevation shifts.
• The cackling geese are moving around a lot (we saw 5 flocks of 25 to 40 birds, all flying over Golden Gardens in various directions, as well as the sitting flock near Beltline).

Weird stuff::
* A Canada goose pretending to be a rock:
A Canada goose was seen swimming in the north pond, then it disappeared, and later a large gray rock was seen on the north bank at the water's edge. Through binoculars, it turned out to be the Canada goose, sitting still and pretending to be a large gray rock. Nice illusion. But it did made a great rock.
* Of the trees, to paraphrase a children's rhyme:
"Poplar leaves are falling down,
falling down, falling down;
poplar leaves are falling down,
my fair parkway."

Correction for Oct 24 list:
The 10-24-19 north Delta Ponds BOGS walk Sharp-shinned hawk was a Merlin.
We did our best in the field, but it was foggy and the bird was at a far distance and blurry through the fog.
It was identified as a merlin later, from photos taken in the field.
This points up the difficulty sometimes of IDing raptors in the field, and the usefulness of photos.

Details:
The Sharp-shinned hawk seen in the foggy distance sitting then flying last week, on the 10-24-19 north Delta Ponds BOGS walk, and ID'ed by its shape, patterns, and flight behavior as a Sharp-shinned hawk, turned out, after photos were posted on eBird, per eBird's regional data reviewer, and several BOGS members who checked the photos using Cornell's allaboutbirds site and various field books, to be a merlin!
The mis-identification had two causes:
1. The bird was very far away, in fog, so could not be seen really clearly.
2. The bird was a pale morph version of the western US dark morph, which is a dark bird with a definite dark mustache. Our bird was not dark, had no mustache, and had a wide-striped tail and pointed wings. When it flew, its wing-beats were fast like a Sharp-shinned hawk.
In the field, we could not get more detail.
Cornell's allaboutbirds website has 3 morphs of Merlin: Taiga; Prairie; and Black.
The Black morph is the one we get in Oregon. Ours looked somewhere between Taiga and Prairie (paler birds, mustache not pronounced or almost absent), not like our usual local Black morph mustachioed dark merlins.
HOWEVER: Photos by one of the BOGS members showed that its tail stripe pattern and chest-mottling pattern were both like a Merlin, not a Sharp-shinned or Cooper's hawk. The BOGS photographer posted the pics. on eBird, and eBird's regional data reviewer told our photographer that it was a merlin. The reviewer also noted our bird's dark eye. (Sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawk have yellow or reddish eyes.) Per the photos, it still didn't have a mustache.
So; our bird could just be a juvenile pale morph of our local dark Black morph. Or a Prairie morph merlin could have got out of its usual range.
Merlins are winter residents in our area, so we can expect to see more soon.
Note: Some birders call the merlin the chocolate falcon, because of the color.