Oregon Birding - Day Five

Jackson-Frazier Wetland

We took a casual walk through the Jackson-Frazier Wetland north of Corvallis. There were lots of families out doing the same, so the birding opportunities were poor, since the foot traffic disturbed most chances to see birds doing their thing in the brush. All together, there were Cedar Waxwing, Black-capped Chickadee, Song Sparrow, American Goldfinch, and Red-winged Blackbird. Here are a couple of bird shots, along with some other sights.

Black-capped Chickadee

Cedar Waxwing

Common Wood-Nymph

Poison Oak

Apple

First Bluebird

We are back home in western Oregon for Christmas - seeing our kids and grandchildren, going to enjoy ten days here going between Corvallis, Albany, and Salem. On the way back to Salem from Corvallis

Western Bluebird in late-afternoon

this late afternoon, I stopped by Jackson-Fraizer Wetland just north of town for a fast walk around the board walk to try out my new 55-300 mm zoom lens. Just as I was driving up to the parking area, a flash of blue across the bow of my daughter's Camry - my first Western Bluebird. I stopped, got my camera out of its case, changed to new lens, backed up the car, rolled down the window......and the result. No special composition, just a document for the record. There were not all that many birds out and about, and it was getting colder by the minute as the sun was going down, but I took note of:

Western Bluebird
Scrub Jay
Red-winged Blackbird
Dark-eyed [Oregon] Junco

and some sort of sparrow - the check-off list of winter sparrows include: Fox Sparrow, Lincoln's Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and White-crowned Sparrow. I don't know which of these, the little critter flew out from the grass beneath the board walk through the wetland. The raptors are abundant along the freeway and highways - Red-tailed Hawk and other large ones, along with smaller ones that I have now clue about their identification.

Here are some random photographs from around the wetland this afternoon:

Winter Red Berries

Teasel

Tree Beard

Board Walk

Wet

The sighting of the Western Bluebird reminded me of the Buffalo Springfield song by the same name that was popular way back in 1968 or '69. The link above to the song is from a 2010 concert - not back in the 60's - the band members are now all in their mid-to-later 60's themselves.

Bluebird

Listen to my bluebird laugh.
She can't tell you why.
Deep within her heart, you see,
She knows only crying.
Just crying.
There she sits, a lofty perch.
Strangest color blue.
Flying is forgotten now.
Thinks only of you.
Just you.
So, get all those blues,
Must be a thousand hues.
And each just differently used.
You just know.
You sit there mesmerized
By the depth of her eyes
That you can't categorize.
She got soul.
She got soul.
She got soul.
She got soul!
Do you think she knows you?
Do you think at all?
Soon she's going to fly away.
Sadness is her own.
Reverse of a bath of tears
And go home, and go home.

West of the Cascades

The check-off list results of a couple of hours of walking the board walk through Jackson-Frazier Wetland, and other environs between Portland and Corvallis are shown below.

a. Brewer's blackbird
b. Red-winged blackbird (female)
c. American crow
d. Western scrub jay
e. Dark-eyed junco
f. Bewick's wren
g. Glaucus-winged gull
h. Mallard duck
i. Rough-legged hawk
j. Rock pigeon
k. Dusky goose
l. Purple finch
m. Red-tailed hawk
n. American robin

It was a nice late-morning to slowly work my way around the wetland between 10:00 and noon. The view was difficult for the birds perched high in the trees when I faced east and south. Since I hadn't been to the wetland before, I didn't know what to expect. The meandering board walk "trails" were great, and since they are elevated, it would be easy to move through the area any time of the year. There were a number of vegetation assemblages in this western Oregon wetland habitat to observe that ranged from a brush woodland to Willamette Valley Wet Prairie.

I had taken my National Geographic Field Guide of Birds of North America (hard cover version) - that was a mistake. It was too large to fit easily in my coat pocket, and had too many choices to look through when I tried to make an identification. There were a number of small-sized species that I hadn't seen before, and the female red-winged blackbird through me off for a while. Mallards among the cat tail reeds played hide-and-seek as I tried to get close to them. The male red-winged blackbird had a distinctive call that I was able to learn by watching and listening. There were a lot of other calls that I didn't know - it would have been helpful to have an experienced birder along for the watching (and listening). After getting back to my car, I drove to the Border's Bookstore on Ninth Street, and bought copies of Birds of Oregon Field Guide, and Field Guide to Birds: Washington & Oregon - the later was on sale and only cost $2.99. Either would have been helpful and easy to handle while watching - next time.