A Good Day at the Refuge 5-14-16

Sometimes a good rain can down birds which are migrating, so this afternoon I went over to Baskett Slough NWR to see if the inclement weather caused something unusual to land there.  My first stop was at the kiosk where I could stay dry as I scoped the main marsh area.  I was really hoping for rare shorebirds, but all I could find were a few Long-billed Dowitchers, a pair of Black-necked Stilts, and one Spotted Sandpiper.  It seemed a little bit of a let down since huge numbers of shorebirds were reported along the coast just a week ago.  As I was looking over the marsh a large tern flew into my field of view - Caspian Tern.  Bingo!  Usually once each spring one gets reported from here, so this was great.

From the kiosk I went to Colville Road where there was a pair of Blue-winged Teal and another pair of Stilts.  The teal are rare nesters and can usually be found here at this time of year.  Where the road is almost at water level with wide pull outs is called the “Narrows,” a presumed borrowed label from a similar area at Malhuer NWR, although there is a tiny community with that name on the south end of it.   While there a Merlin flew over. 

From here I drove over to Morgan Lake at the north end of the refuge.  While walking the trail to the lake a Green Heron flew over.  Once at the lake I could see a duck about 200 yards out, and in the scope it sure looked like a female Red-breasted Merganser, a rare inland find.  Once she saw me she began swimming in the other direction.  I hoped she would not go far and retraced my steps back to my truck to grab my camera.  I should have taken it with me, but as most of the time there is never anything rare on the lake, I purposely left it.  

When I got back to the lake, she was closer, so I snapped a number of pics to document it.  But slowly I began to figure out it was a weird plumaged Hooded Merganser.  I had even texted a few others just in case they were free to check it out.  So I next texted them back saying I had to eat crow.  Oh well, it was a good educational experience if nothing else.   However, at the far end of the lake I spied a suspicious looking bird which kept diving, but once I got it in the scope, turned out to be a Common Loon.  Bingo!  This species is not reported in the county every year, and are rare, with less than 20 records here in Polk County. This one was not to be confused with anything else, so I could text those dudes back with better news. While watching the loon, a Common Yellowthroat popped up in front of me, almost daring me to snap his picture, so I took him up on it.  His bill was chock full of insects, so I figured he had many mouths to feed.

From here I came back to Colville Road.  There were many swallows at the Narrows lining the electric wires, and among them were 3 Purple Martins.  Between those on the wires and over the water (swallows) there was probably a thousand birds or so, so I began the search for the brown ones, and finally found a Rough-winged Swallow.  I spend some 15 minutes looking for a Bank Swallow, but could not turn one up.  While doing so, I started hearing martins, and then discovered there were at least 10 of them near the power pole  more to the east.  I ended up counting 16 Martins, a larger than usual number for here, but this is what inclement weather can do.

Just as I was about to leave, a couple Yellow-headed Blackbirds landed on the road nearby allowing me to snap their pictures as well.

Black-necked Stilt

A pair of Blue-winged Teal

Female Hooded Merganser

Common Loon

Common Yellowthroat

Purple Martins

Yellow-headed Blackbirds