The couv.

Tuesday morning I went up to Vancouver to walk the dogs and check for the Ross's Goose yet again.  I drove up Old Lower River Road where after one false alarm, I finally located the goose at a reasonable distance.  Yay!

Greater White-fronted and Cackling Geese began falling from the sky...

Sandhill Cranes too.

Seemed like a good time to get outta there with all those birds falling... So we headed over to the bike path to Frenchman's Bar.  Nothing too exciting, but here's some stuff anyway...

 Yet another photo that Blogger has decided to mess with...

Song Sparrow

A Horned Grebe at Frenchman's Bar Park seemed completely incapable of eating a fish it had caught.  I watched it swim around with the fish for a long time, and still hadn't swallowed it when I left.

And the walk back...

Golden-crowned Sparrow

 After the dog walk I drove back to the goose spot to see if the Ross's was still around.  I couldn't say for sure because hundreds of Snow Geese had shown up...

Good times!!

Ankeny NWR, again.

For the second time during my five day weekend I dragged Christian down to Ankeny NWR near Salem.  This time I was motivated by a Yellow-throated Warbler sighting, a potential life bird for me.  We arrived at the parking area approximately two minutes after over 20 people got outstanding views of the bird.  At least it was gorgeous out...

We gave up on the warbler after awhile and walked down to see if we could find the Lewis's Woodpeckers.  And failed again.  But there were cows.

This area is great for Acorn Woodpeckers as well as Western Bluebirds. 

After wandering the area for awhile, warbler-free, we took a break to drive south and look for a Burrowing Owl field of sheep.  Success!

Yay.  We made our way back up to Ankeny...

In the parking lot we were greeted by a woman who had just seen the warbler at a residence up the street.  She walked us over and within a few minutes we heard the bird calling.  It landed briefly on the suet feeder in the yard and I saw it for a second in my bins.  And then it disappeared. 

No photos.  No evidence.  We waited for it to come back in the freezing cold while a yellow lab begged for our attention.  We gave up.  The sun was setting as we got back to the car...

We made one more stop at Eagle Marsh, where a Canvasback was blatantly checking out the booty of a Tundra Swan.

So maybe not the most productive day bird-wise, but it was beautiful out and I managed the worst views of a life bird ever.  Winning. 

Good times!

Weekend Part One.

The first two days of my five-day weekend are over.   I birded a lot but don't feel like I have much to show for it.  So it goes.  Had good company at least.  Thanksgiving morning I got distracted by the bird party in the yard.  Lesser and American Goldfinches were getting along. 

Later on I headed down to Ankeny and Baskett Slough NWRs with Christian, where we failed to find just about all the birds we looked for.  Yay.  Acorn Woodpeckers are nice though.

Ankeny NWR

At Baskett Slough we hiked up to the lookout where children were running wild.  Eventually they left and we got to enjoy some deer, a hooting Great Horned Owl, and the sunset in peace.  Minus the gunshots, of course.

Yesterday we went up to Powell Butte to look for shrikes.  Again, major fail.  At least it wasn't raining and the scenery was nice. 

The best bird was probably a Red-shouldered Hawk that I took five terrible photos of and promptly deleted.  Later on at Whitaker Ponds I got to witness the fact that it's become a dumping ground for animals.  Christian had told me about a couple of chickens he saw wandering around recently, and he showed me what was left of them...

We also found a couple of non-wild bunnies that were just hopping around, being bunnies.

Maybe next time I visit someone will have dumped their pet wolf. 

Anyway.  This morning after running some errands I stopped by Force Lake.  There were about twenty Hooded Mergansers hanging out, along with a few Common Mergansers, Canvasbacks, Mallards, etc.

That's about it... Good times!