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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BOGS Skinner Butte
April 22, 2022

Bird list for BOGS walk at Skinner Butte;
Friday, April 22, 2022; 9:00am. - 11:20am.
Leader: Steve Barron.
Weather: 45 to 52 degrees, partly cloudy.

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LOCATION: Skinner Butte, Eugene.
Meet at 9am. at Campbell Center and walk up the north side of the Butte, or drive up and meet the group at the top at 10am.

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Where we walked today:
Nearly everyone on this walk met on April 22, 9 am., at the Campbell Ctr., and walked north and then west along the river, birding as we went along. Next we walked and birded our way up the north side of the butte to the top, (where we met one BOGS person who had driven up in their car). We birded along the trails circling the top; then we walked down to the east side hidden meadow. Most of the meadow is now grass. Blackberries and shrubs mostly have been removed as fire fuel reduction and to reduce problems with unhoused people camping. We stayed on the road going down; past Shelton McMurphey Johnson House, north on High St., and back to the Campbell Ctr.

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Bird list

  1. Turkey vulture
  2. Bald eagle
  3. Cooper's hawk
  4. Gull, Juvenile
  5. Anna's hummingbird
  6. Acorn woodpecker
  7. Flycatcher: Pacific Slope or Hammonds
  8. Steller's jay
  9. Scrub jay - heard only.
  10. American crow
  11. Violet-green swallow
  12. Violet-green swallow
  1. Black-capped chickadee
  2. Bushtit
  3. Brown creeper
  4. Bewick's wren - heard only.
  5. Ruby-crowned kinglet
  6. Robin
  7. European starling
  8. Black-throated gray
  9. Hermit warbler - heard only.
  10. Nashville warbler
  11. Nashville warbler
  1. Orange-crowned warbler - heard only.
  2. Yellow-rumped warbler, Audubon race
  3. Western tanager - heard only.
  4. Spotted towhee
  5. Golden-crowned sparrow
  6. Song sparrow - heard only.
  7. White-crowned sparrow
  8. Black-headed grosbeak
  9. House finch - heard only.
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Most common birds today:
American crow (8 seen.)
Next most common: Golden-crowned sparrow (6 seen), Brown creeper (4 seen).

Most uncommon/rare bird seen in this location on this walk was an Acorn woodpecker.

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Highlights and of Interest:

  • Some people saw 1 pair of Black-headed grosbeaks down on the flat near the river.
  • 2 people saw an Anna's hummingbird chasing a Steller's jay, on the lower part of the north slope.
  • Seeing 2 Brown creepers interacting with each other - chasing each other around in short bursts. Were they two males, or a male-female pair? We were not sure. It didn't seem like aggressive territorial behavior.
  • Seeing an Acorn woodpecker on the butte!!!
    It was pecking on a large tree snag just south of the reservoir and was there for at least 2 or 3 minutes. This is not a usual site for this species. Lane Audubon Society field notes from back in 2010 and 2012 listed the Acorn Woodpecker as uncommon and rare on Skinner Butte.
  • We heard a hidden bird being mobbed by Steller's and Scrub jays down the east side of the butte below "hidden meadow". Then a few minutes later, we saw a Cooper's hawk at the top of a tree snag above the hidden meadow being mobbed by several noisy crows. Some of the flying crows actually hit the hawk. When the hawk flew down to a lower branch, the crows stopped mobbing it, and two flew down and perched on branches near it. The crows were now silent. After a few minutes, when the hawk didn't move again, the crows left. Probably the Cooper's hawk was also the subject of the first mobbing.
  • Many of our Flycatchers can be difficult to ID! The flycatcher at the top of the butte, ID'd at the time as a possible Pacific Slope flycatcher, was later judged by Don and Priscilla, to probably be a Hammond's flycatcher, based on careful study of Don's photo of the bird along with circumstantial eBird data indicating that quite a few Hammond's flycatchers had already been reported to have arrived, while far fewer Pacific Slope flycatchers had been seen yet in our area by this date.

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