Clark County.

Last week Jacob and I went up to Ridgefield to look for a reported Harris's Sparrow in the rain.  He found it easily. 


Yesss!  This was Clark County bird #200 for me, and Jacob's life bird #299.  Exciting numbers. 

The sparrow was hanging out with mostly Golden-crowneds but also this funky Purple Finch:


There were other fun birds around like a flock of 50 Wilson's Snipes and this sneaky American Bittern.


We saw some geese fly and I noticed one had a red neck band.  I took a ton of photos of it with hopes of being able to read the band.  Success! 


Another photo showed the rest of the code and I sent it off to the Bird Banding Lab that day.  By evening I had details on the bird (so much faster than they used to be!).


At least 8 years old!  Pretty cool. 

After Ridgefield I asked if we could make a stop on the way home and Jacob agreed despite being super sick.  I had snooped in his eBird account and saw he needed a couple birds for the county that were at Vancouver Lake.  We only found one, a Western Grebe.  I took the long way back along Old Lower River Road to scan the Cackling Goose flocks for rarities.  I had been thinking Brant, but instead we found a Ross's Goose!


After about fifteen minutes of watching it they all took flight.


Such a great bird for Jacob's 300th!  Yay! 

The next day we were out running errands and I suggested a stop at Wintler Park to see if goldeneyes had returned.  Indeed they had, and at least one male Barrow's was in the mix. 

Broughton Beach background

I think this was a 5MR year bird for me but not sure because eBird is down for maintenance.

Oh!  Since this is a Clark County post I just remembered some photos of squirrels I took at Jacob's house last month.  There were a couple interacting that I assume were mother/baby but they kept licking each other and running around like crazy.  It went on for hours.




 Secret handshake

 Feed me.




Squirrels are weird.  Good times!!

Comments

  1. Good winter birding. Props on 200...is Clark your future county? I just broke the 200 barrier in my new home county. The road to 300 is long and filled with terrors.

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    1. Yep, future county. The #1 eBirder in Clark has 232 eBirds. All-time. I think the road to 300 for me would be filled with more than terrors.

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    2. But the road to #1 in Clark is short and sweet!

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  2. Squirrels are awesome! Squirrel fingers are weird! Congrats on the nice round numbers. I am sitting at 198 for my home county and the suspense is killing me.

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    Replies
    1. Ooooh 198. Hope you get a couple before the year ends!

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  3. Love the squirrely action...and hip hip hooray on your 200 in your soon to be new patch, looks like Jacob is the guy to beat there! I just want to make 500 before I pass to the next chapter of living forever....I really have to get busy.

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