From the Contact Station April 2021

Homecoming for Spring

Roll down those car windows and start listening. Soon to return are the Yellow-headed Blackbirds with their mechanical call, Sora rails calling from the wetlands, Osprey moving up and down Lake River, and chittering Purple Martins flying overhead. Swallows are increasing in number as many of the ducks, geese, and swans head north for their nesting grounds. The Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers are looking particularly beautiful right now. Check out the small pond on the right side of the first leg of the tour, just before the first set of trees, for the Wood Ducks, and look in the canals or sloughs for the mergansers. We are hoping that the eagle pairs are sitting nests and we will have more eaglets this year. And our Great Horned Owls are probably on the nest now too. Just as we think that the lakes are beginning to recede and the water levels in the sloughs are going down, we seem to have another downpour to refill them. It certainly is the season for erratic weather, but we are moving into spring.

This is a good time to search all the muddy edges for birds. Robins, Killdeer, and Wilson’s Snipe all like to pick and probe for critters. I had a brief encounter with a flock of twenty-five Dunlin recently. Shorebirds are migrating north to nest as far as Alaska so some of them come through early. If conditions are right on the refuge for water levels, they will often stop briefly to fuel up for the migration. Now is the time to watch closely.

I’ve mentioned before a team of volunteers that do goose counts in the winter. We also do a raptor survey once a month. We cover the entire refuge except for the Carty unit. The Raptor survey is part of a bigger effort for a better understanding of the biology of wintering birds of prey in Oregon, Idaho, portions of Washington along the Columbia River, and California’s portion of the Klamath Basin. The East Cascades Audubon Society located in Bend, Oregon sponsors the project designed to reveal population levels, distribution, and densities for raptor species. Contributors are all volunteers who survey established routes and report their findings. The raptor species most often encountered is the Red-tailed Hawk, about 43% of all raptors seen this year. The American Kestrel is next at about 21% followed by the Bald Eagles at around 15%. Jeff Fleischer, the project coordinator will be doing a zoom talk with Vancouver Audubon in June to describe the project and findings. Anyone can register to join the zoom meeting. Simply go to the Vancouver Audubon Society website to get the details on the monthly meetings.

For the refuge part of the raptor count, we drive about 18 miles and spend about 3 hours surveying. For December to February this year, we averaged 58 raptors per count. The average breakdown was 20 Red-tailed Hawks, 8 American Kestrel, 10 Northern Harrier, 11 Bald Eagle Adults, and 6 Subadult Bald Eagles. Less frequently spotted was a Golden Eagle in February, 1 to 3 Rough-legged Hawks, 2 Red-shouldered Hawks in February, and 2 Peregrine Falcons in December. Keep in mind it is just a three-hour survey and sometimes the weather can be an issue, making it hard to find raptors that might be hunkered down. It will be interesting to see how we do over time. Some of the project routes have been studied for up to fourteen years, but the Refuge has been participating for just three years.

A couple of days ago I took my little power shot camera along with me to the refuge. I was so lucky to get this beautiful female American Kestrel sitting on one of our refuge signs not 10 feet away from me. I love to get shots of the faces of birds. I have to say I am not often successful, but this one was so close, how could I miss. Fascinated by the bird’s willingness to stay put, I took several photos including one of its talons. When I got home and put the photo on the desktop, oh my, the bird is banded. I am hoping this kestrel stays around for nesting season. And I am going to try to get a good look at the band with my scope or another photo. We can send the information to Hawkwatch International to get information about where the bird was banded. If anyone gets a photo or has read this band, I would love to know what you found. You can contact us through the Friends email at contact@ridgefieldfriends.org. The silver bands are USGS bands. There might be colored bands on the left leg. Thanks for helping.

Now, to end with a bit of a challenge. This is a good time to find this bird. Grasses along the pond edges are not excessively big, which helps in your search. Soon they will be calling for mates in the wetlands. Can you find the bird?