LUCKY FRIDAY THE 13TH

The light was terrible this morning, rainy and low light. But the birding was fine. A birding friend from San Francisco, Jim Conway, is in town. We are working on a tradition. Every visit we go out and find him a lifer. Target: Lewis’s Woodpecker. We saw them as soon as we arrived at the oak-forested peninsula on the east side of Agate Lake.The swallows were swarming along the shore and low over the water. Tree and Violet-green mostly. But there were more than a few Cliff Swallows, first I’d seen this year.Most of the Cliff Swallows rested on bare bushes out in the lake, not on trees like the Tree and Violet-green.The quintet of perched birds are Tree Swallows while the one in the duo shot with white cheek line is a Violet-green.Here is one of the two Osprey on a nest platform, giving Jim and me “the look.”
Agate Lake, Jackson, US-OR. Apr 13, 2012 9:45 AM. 29 species.
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) 4
American Wigeon (Anas americana) 25
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 6
Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) 8
Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris) 45
Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) 30
Clark’s Grebe (Aechmophorus clarkii) 1 in breeding plumage.
Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) 6
American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) 5
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) 1
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) 2
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) 1
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) 1
American Coot (Fulica americana) 35
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) 1
Lewis’s Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) 10
Common Raven (Corvus corax) 1
Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) 800
Violet-green Swallow (Tachycineta thalassina) 300
Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) 75
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 4
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) 10.
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata) 40.
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) 1
Lincoln’s Sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii) 1
Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla) 35.
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) 20.
Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) 4 singing.
Brewer’s Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) 30.Henderson’s fawn lily in bloom.

About these ads