Oregon Birding - Day Four, Morning On The Margin

Stump pile observation post

I went back to the pile of tree stumps and brush this morning, and found waves of birds would come through every ten to fifteen minutes - it was just a matter of waiting in one place for the birds to come to me. I had walked along the margin of the woodland and could hear a lot of bird activity, but rarely saw anything other than what flew overhead. Going back to the stump pile and standing still, after a while the margins of the leafed branches would move differently than with the rhythm of the wind-blown movement - birds were appearing. Taking photographs of the birds that hung out on the margin of the woodland wasn't easy - most of their appearances were behind branches and leaves, but eventually the subjects would move into the open for a clear shot. It wasn't pleasant standing there - the remains of an Opossum were nearly all decomposed except for the hide and bones. Off in the distance to the north, a rooster Ring-necked Pheasant made its clucking call.  Here are three birds that appeared this morning on the woodland margin:

Bewick's Wren

Spotted Towhee

Song Sparrow

Other morning sights, seen while waiting for waves of birds to appear:

Cinnabar Moth larvae on Tansy Ragwort

Bumble Bee on thistle

Honey Bee on thistle

Spotted Towhee on Blackberries

Woodland floor, with Spotted Towhee

Evening Post Script - Day Four: The entire height of the woods was alive with birds around 5:45 PM. Spotted Towhee were on the floor, as well as on the tree trunks along with Bushtit and Bewick's Wren, and Black-capped Chickadee hopping on branches up in the canopy. The lighting was subdued, so I was having to shoot at 1/15th of a second - not the best setting for stopping movements. I was engrossed in trying to get close-up pictures, so when a friendly teenage boy carrying a bag of groceries came up behind me on the path, I about jumped out of my New Balance running shoes.

Barn Swallow on air

After dinner, Jan, Tobby the Labradoodle, and I walked down to the near-by primary school. I took a quick look inside the woodland as we walked by on the sidewalk, but there was no apparent activity going on as earlier. As we approached the school, we saw a pair of American Robin and an adult Killdeer trying to lure me away from a youngster running across the athletic track. In the air, Barn Swallow floated effortlessly across the sky - darting this way and that, making it difficult to get a steady photograph.

Oregon Birding - Day Three

Yesterday was the warmest day for the next several - today being overcast, much cooler, and windy. As a result, the bird activity around the neighborhood is minimal. There were no birds inside the nearby Oregon Ash woodland that I search around yesterday, but there was a little bit of activity on the eastern, leeward side of the trees. Other than occasional swallows swooping over the grassland, and one hawk floating by over head,
there were few birds to hear, and even fewer to see. Near the sidewalk is a pushed up pile of tree trunks and old branches, probably the remnants of the street being cut through the woodland. Beyond the pile of spent trees, extends the grassland. Walking across the area, it is obvious that in winter much of the area is covered in water.  The three birds shown below were seen in and around this pile today.

American Goldfinch

I can't tell whether this is a female American Goldfinch, or something else that is yellow. The bird seem more rotund than the typical female goldfinch I am used to seeing in Maryland, and does match up with the Lesser Goldfinch, either.

Bushtit

Similarly for difficulty with identification, I think this bird is a Bushtit. With the poor results I got for this photograph with all of the brush placed at different depths in front of and behind the bird, I consulted with my daughter on how to set the auto-focus on my camera so that it will ignore the other distractions.

American Robin

This American Robin must be used to people, he was quite the subject - letting me walking around him, getting closer with each shot. There were a good number of robins perched on neighbors' roofs this evening, seeming to make up a flock intent in hanging out together for the evening.

Other flying critters included the following - they like the woodland margin and open grassland:

Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Widow Skimmer Dragonfly

Twelve-spotted Skimmer Dragonfly

Oregon Birding - Day Two, Morning

Oregon Ash woodland

A short walk from my daughter's home is an open area between the housing development and a new primary school complex. A drainage runs near the edge of the development, with a stand of Oregon Ash trees that are typical of the Willamette Valley wetland terraces. Just beyond the woodland, there is a nice stretch of open grassland that is highly disturbed - probably managed so there won't be fire late in the season, very few native prairie species grow there.

American Goldfinch

American Goldfinch are abundant, including these that were perched on plant stems while eating seeds of a dandelion-like plant and grasses. These birds were very wary of me, so they would keep moving ahead of me - not letting me get a decent close-up photograph. They would keep doing this until I had bothered them enough, and then they flew away. The goldfinch traveled in flocks of five or six, and typically would land high in tree tops where they would flutter around moving from one tree to another - never coming down close to me for some more pictures. Shown in the photograph are a male (left) and female (right). Seeing how the goldfinches hang up-side-down from the feeder at home explains how they also can attach themselves to plant stems in what-ever-direction-best-suits-them in a more natural setting.

Brown Creepers

These two Brown Creepers were the best siting I made this morning. I stood on the sidewalk close to the edge of the woodland when they landed on a tree and started making their way in tandem up the trunk. After a while they flew to a neighboring tree and did the same - eventually flying to another tree further into the stand. I saw at least two other species inside the woods. All of these birds don't seem to hold still for very long - constantly moving along whatever branch they happen to be on, or jumping from one tree to another. The coloration of these birds blends in with the bark of the tree. It is easy to see the bird that stands out in contrast to the lighted background - the bird to its left is well camouflaged.

Putative Song Sparrow

Even with the clouds today, the light inside the woods is very muted, except where bright patches of light show through the canopy. The contrast is great enough to make any photograph taken near the canopy margins difficult using the automatic exposure setting on my digital camera. I tried to get a good angle for me with the bird in the picture to right so that it would look like a silhouette. As it turned out, if it wasn't for the Adjust feature in the Edit tool of iPhoto, I wouldn't have been able to make out that this bird was likely a Song Sparrow.
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Map of local environs

Here is a Google Map for the housing development and the neighboring woodland mentioned above. The woodland is to the right middle of the map - grassland extends to the right half of the map. I did most of my birding this morning from the sidewalk along the road that cuts through the upper tip of the woodland. A feature of these woodlands that is important to remember: poison oak - when looking for birds, always pay attention to where you are walking and what you are walking up against.