Laurel Feigenbaum and her husband were in town from the Bay Area and were up for some morning birding.  So we ignored the cold temps and headed out to North Mountain Park in Ashland.  Common Yellowthroats and even Wilson’s Warblers gave us some good looks.  Then there was this domestic couple coming and going from their house above the water:

That’s the female Tree Swallow on top of the box, her back not the glossy black of her mate, more of a dark, matte brown.  Their nest box is on a wooden post about three feet above the surface of a shallow pond.

 

 

 

 

Further along the trail we found this mystery sparrow.  Think it might be a White-crowned?  They do nest in the Rogue Valley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, here’s a side view of that same sparrow.  It was a Golden-crowned.  Late migrant?  Sticking around until the snow melts before he moves upslope to nest?

There was a Lincoln’s Sparrow flitting around the same berry bushes cum brush pile, but he would not pose for a picture.  Much shyer.

 

 

 

 

There were flashing yellow forms all through the trees and along the reeds just above the surface of the little ponds.  Warblers including Orange-crowned.  Tiny goldfinches.  Western Kingbirds with a belly the color of banaaSeveral Western Tanagers, even one who stood still for some long views of the yellow chest, Valencia orange face.  A couple BH Grosbeaks sped over the trees.  But most frustrating were the singing, chattering orioles.  A quick glimpse of black, an outline of a long thin tail,  a shadowy figure behind the leaves forty feet over our heads.  More chattering, then a speeding slender shape moving across the open.  As we were less than fifty feet from the car, ready to leave, this guy flew up to a branch.  Stopped in the open, waiting for a bit of the sporadic sunshine.  He has just bathed in a pond and so those uneven back feathers are not really the fault of my lousy photography but are really wet feathers.  A little preening fby the male Bullock’s Oriole.  Some well-deserved “Look at that bird,” from all three of us.  A female Bullock’s showed up and we got to compare her gray undercarriage with the much bolder colors of the male.

I blogged earlier about the Evening Grobeak pair we saw at North Mountain.  That was #199 on my Oregon life list.  Surprising also were a pair of Ring-necked Ducks.  Two months ago I would have yawned, but this is pretty late in the spring…this pair may simply be among the small number who nest in eastern Oregon so they haven’t far to fly. The Mallards at North Mountain have their season in hand: we saw one female who had a half dozen little black and yellow fuzz-balls following her around.  My sister-in-law recently saw a female Wood DSuck and her little line of ducklings on a trail above Ashland Creek.

EMIGRANT LAKE

We then made a quick run out to Emigrant Lake and its eastern slope.   And there we found the Lewis’s Woodpeckers busy among the Oregon white oaks.  This spot’s at Milepost 10 along HIghway 66 and grassy enough that Meadowlarks were singing.  Often Western Bluebirds are there along with Lesser Goldfinches and Acorn Woodpeckers.  Once again a Lewis’s Woodpecker was hanging out at this accommodating cavity near the top of a utility pole.  Nesting in Jackson County?

 

 

Down along the lakeshore we found three Warbling Vireos in the same oak and an Ash-throated Flycatcher.  Then it was backto town for the afternoon matinee at Oregon Shakespeare.

Location:     North Mountain Park
Observation date:     5/7/08
Notes:     Evening Grosbeak not a regular or common bird in Ashland.
Number of species:     31

Canada Goose     2
Mallard     5
Turkey Vulture     2
Band-tailed Pigeon     3
Mourning Dove     4
Vaux’s Swift     5
Acorn Woodpecker     3
Downy Woodpecker     3
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)     1
Olive-sided Flycatcher     1
Western Wood-Pewee     1
Pacific-slope Flycatcher     1
Black Phoebe     2
Western Kingbird     2
Western Scrub-Jay     3
Tree Swallow     25
American Robin     2
European Starling     10
Orange-crowned Warbler     2
Yellow-rumped Warbler     1
Common Yellowthroat     2
Wilson’s Warbler     8
Spotted Towhee     1
Lincoln’s Sparrow     1
Golden-crowned Sparrow     1
Black-headed Grosbeak     4
Red-winged Blackbird     10
Brewer’s Blackbird     6
House Finch     2
Lesser Goldfinch     16
Evening Grosbeak     2

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/Klamath-Siskiyou)

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