It was hot today in Ashland.  Too hot.  The folks working on our house reomdel knocked off before the blowtorch reched its afternoon max.  But in the morning two visiting birders from New York state got some good looks at a number of our western birds.  We birded the streets above Lithia Park, the Fuller’s garden feeders for the tame grobeaks and Band-tails, the necessary Dipper stop near the Lithia Park bandshell, then North Mountain Park where the mid-morning was almost birdless, finally out to Emigrant Lake where we stayed int he shade or the air conditioned car.  We watched a Green Heron hunt successfully and repeatedly in the shoreline weeds.  Both feet in the water helped him stay cool no doubt.  Later a mature Bald Eagle came swooping in to drive a pair of Red-tailed Hawks away.  Not sure what the contretemps was over, never did see anything edible at issue.

The swallows over the laKe were busy and numerous, five species.

The New Yorkers cleverly left for Bandon where the temps will be about thirty degrees lower, and the smaller birds were largely in their shaded rest spots by mid-day.

Canada Goose, Mallard, Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, California Quail with young, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Osprey, Ring-billed Gull, Killdeer, Band-tailed Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Acorn Woodpecker, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Vaux’s Swift, Western Kingbird, Western Wood-Pewee, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Scrub-jay, Steller’s Jay, American Crow, Raven, Cliff Swallow, Violet-green Swallow, Tree Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow, European Starling, American Robin, American Dipper (2), Spotted Towhee, Macgillivray’s Warbler, Black-headed Grosbeak, Brewer’s Blackbird with young, Red-winged Blackbird, Bullock’s Oriole with young, House Finch, Lesser Goldfinch, House Sparrow.