May Day according to tradition is a Red-letter day. This one filled the promise.
I met up with Bay Area birders, Ronald W. Stovitz and Danell Zeavin, at 8AM at Ashland Plaza. We went immediately uphill to Glenview Road for the morning waming. Ronald and Danell wanted to bird. Breakfast would wait. As the sun began to warm the trees the little, hungry gleaners started to appear. Best was a singing male MacGillivray’s Warbler. You blogster regulars have seen this picture before, but I may never get a better one of this usually secretive shrubbery resident:
We got great views of a Red-breasted Sapsucker, brightly colored but no way to tell if it was a male or female. We saw a Robin still lining its nest just above the trail. And we encountered at least three singing Black-headed Grosbeaks. This picture was taken at my garden feeder later in the day, but…you get the picture:
His and hers Grosbeak.
Mr. and Mrs. BH Grosbeak, table for two.
“You getting enough to eat, darling?”
Still, not hungry enough to stop birding we raced across town to North Mountain Park as the sun was warming the trees and creekside bushes. More warblers, with Wilson’s and Orange-crowned being the most abundant. Somehow we found only female Common Yellowthroats around the ponds. A quick peek at the Bushtit nest near the boardwalk. All seemed to be in fine fettle as both Bushtit adults were feeding the willows there. A small flycatcher got past us. Tree Swallows seemed to be fussing over nesting holes. Housing crisis in the Hirundinidae family? We can all sympathize.
In the usual spot where the little stream drains between the ball fields, the Bullock’s Oriole. And he was surrounded by Orange-crowns and a single shy Warbling Vireo. “Here I am, here I go, now I’m gone.” Our lone vireo vision of the day. As usual at North Mountain there was an Acorn Woodpecker visible and both local goldfinch species were trilling and posing.
At the small ponds we got three good, clear looks at the Green Heron in flight, one static view of him trying to hiding between thin branches with no leaves. Just before we left we ran into anothe pair of birders admiring the male oriole. Compared notes. The man said, “Have you seen any Nashville Warblers?”
“Not so far today,” I said. Then I looked up into the oriole’s tree. There they were. Two Nashville Warblers. Too bad he didn’t ask about Chat, still don’t have one yet this year though KBO mist-netted their first of the season just yesterday.
EMIGRANT LAKE
Next we drove six miles out to Emigrant Lake southeast of Ashland. There were a few lingering scaup, nesting Coots, fishing DC Cormorants. A pair of Osprey were fishing the lake. No success that we could see. There was one Blue Heron working the shallows, and a very white spot in the willows at the lake’s southeastern corner turned out to be a Great Egret in its feathery breeding plumes. These birds are not known to next here in Jackson County. Neither are the Eurasian Collared-doves that have been regular only about twenty miles to the north. We saw only a single bird.
The lone Clark’s Grebe was a happy surprise. It was fishing apart from a handful of Western. The Clark’s do breed in south-central Oregon, east of the Cascades. This bird was in breeding plumage, the white on the face rising over the eye. The beak a bright yellow. This grebe’s not named for Clark of Lewis &…. It’s named for an army officer of the mid-1800s. However, Lewis’s Woodpcecker was discovered by Lewis the famous explorer and is named for him. These birds are still to be found east of Emigrant Lake at milepost 10 on Oregon Hiway 66. One bird spent several minutes just hanging out at the mouth of a woodpecker hole drilled into a utility pole. Nesting would be unusual for Jackson County.
Clark did get his namesake, the enjoyable Clark;s Nutcrtacker, star of the avian show at Crater Lake.
There weas a wonderfully songful Western Meadowlark at the Lewis’s location. Also, Western Bluebirds and calling Acorn Woodpeckers. A couple miles to the east we saw a Golden Eagle soaring high above steep grassy inclines. Nearer at hand we had the small Kestrel over a grassy pasture.
Altogether we had well over sixty species for the day’s birding. Abnd I got home in time to get a good photo of the dining grosbeaks.
Location: Glenview Drive–Ashland
Observation date: 5/1/08
Notes: Robins nesting. MacGillivray’s male sang in oepn view for several seconds.
Number of species: 17
Turkey Vulture 3
Rufous Hummingbird 1
Red-breasted Sapsucker 1
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) 1
Empidonax sp. 1
Steller’s Jay 3
Common Raven 2
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 2
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
MacGillivray’s Warbler 1
Wilson’s Warbler 1
Spotted Towhee 3
Black-headed Grosbeak 3
Lesser Goldfinch 4
Location: North Mountain Park
Observation date: 5/1/08
Notes: Bushtit nest visible and intact. Oriole was vocal. No sign of a Chat this morning.
Number of species: 29
Mallard 2
Green Heron 1
Anna’s Hummingbird 1
Acorn Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) 1
Empidonax sp. 1
Warbling Vireo 1
Western Scrub-Jay 8
Common Raven 1
Tree Swallow 12
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Bushtit 2
American Robin 1
European Starling 4
Orange-crowned Warbler 7
Nashville Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s) 4
Common Yellowthroat 4
Wilson’s Warbler 10
Spotted Towhee 2
Song Sparrow 1
Red-winged Blackbird 15
Brewer’s Blackbird 10
Bullock’s Oriole 1
House Finch 1
Lesser Goldfinch 3
American Goldfinch 5
House Sparrow 4
Location: Emigrant Lake
Observation date: 5/1/08
Notes: Lewis’s Woodpeckers may be preparing to nest, area count include oak hillsides around milepost 10 on Highway 66, east of Emigrant Lake.
Number of species: 49
Canada Goose 6
Mallard 3
Lesser Scaup 8
Common Merganser 1
California Quail 1
Western Grebe 5
Clark’s Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 4
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Turkey Vulture 18
Osprey 2
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Golden Eagle 1
American Kestrel 1
American Coot 4
Ring-billed Gull 2
Band-tailed Pigeon 6
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1
Mourning Dove 2
Vaux’s Swift 4
Anna’s Hummingbird 1
Lewis’s Woodpecker 15
Acorn Woodpecker 8
Empidonax sp. 1
Western Kingbird 4
Western Scrub-Jay 20
American Crow 8
Common Raven 6
Tree Swallow 50
Violet-green Swallow 4
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
Cliff Swallow 8
Barn Swallow 10
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Oak Titmouse 4
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Western Bluebird 4
American Robin 2
European Starling 6
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s) 1
Wilson’s Warbler 2
Song Sparrow 1
White-crowned Sparrow 1
Golden-crowned Sparrow 1
Red-winged Blackbird 6
Western Meadowlark 3
Brewer’s Blackbird 4
House Finch 2
