Everything That's Old is New, Part 1

Well, it looks like we've got quite the backlog of photos that haven't made it onto the blog yet. In the interest of playing catch-up I thought it'd be good to unload some of our favorite un-shared photos from 2016 over three or four posts. Not every outing becomes a grand adventure, and so we end up collecting a photo here, a photo there. You know how it goes. Also, this week marks three years in Oregon! So by happy coincidence we get to use this opportunity to take you on a mini-tour of our favorite spots around the Pacific Northwest. The photos in this post were all taken around Salem.

What's the only thing better than a Bushtit? Two Bushtits! Or better still, cuddling Bushtits.

We're fortunate that we live pretty near to a couple of excellent National Wildlife Refuges, including our go-to wetland, Ankeny NWR. There have been some extraordinary rarities in the few years we've lived here, including a Tufted Duck this winter, and a Ruff the year before.

American White Pelicans are annual at Ankeny, but never seem to stick around for long

Lincoln's Sparrow

Aside from the birds, Ankeny is still one of my favorite places for the sheer number and variety of arthropods it hosts. It's always worth stooping to closely inspect the grasses or the rails along the boardwalk trails. And it's taught me that it's always worth have a macro lens on hand, even if it's just my handy iPhone clip that I carry everywhere.

Forest Tent Caterpillar

Bush-katydid nymph, cutest of all insects.

Jumping spider

Tundra Swans are a highlight every winter when they gather at Ankeny by the dozens, sometimes numbering nearly 100. I know it's cliché to associate swans with grace, so I won't. I'll just show this series Maureen shot and defy you come up with a better, more apt word.

Ankeny isn't the only place in town to find swans, since Minto-Brown Island Park is home to a pair of their Mute cousins. Yeah, they're invasive and pose a huge menace to wetland ecosystems by aggressively driving out the competition, unsustainably devouring native vegetation, and choking waterways with their waste... but there's no arguing with those good looks.

One of the coolest finds at Minto-Brown last year was this mating pair of dagger flies. The male brings her a nuptial gift in an attempt to win her over. If he's successful she goes to work on the gift while the male starts going to work on her. 

The same pair dagger flies, as seen from above

There are so many active raptor nests in spring that even the non-birders realize how great the park is for birds, regularly stopping us to tell us where they saw this or that. Just in the past few weeks we've seen nests for Osprey, Red-tailed Hawks, and Northern Harriers. This harrier from last year was in the process of getting nest material together.

Lorquin's Admiral

Townsend's Chipmunk is the default chipmunk here in the Willamette Valley. I still haven't figured out how to tell it apart from Oregon's four other chipmunk species other than by range, but since I think Townsend's is all we get in the valley...

I'm a Sucker for Sapsuckers

Maureen is away in Texas this weekend, which is unfortunate for me in every way but one: she left behind her big lens. Happy to take advantage of a rare opportunity I knew I wanted to spend a good deal of time outdoors, and shockingly, the weather actually cooperated with after 3 straight weeks(!) of rain. So directly after work on Friday I set out, first to Woodmansee Park (interrupting countless rounds of frisbee golf every step of the way), and then to Minto-Brown.

Bushtit

Song Sparrow

American Robin. Cold-blooded killa

Friday's highlight wasn't a bird, but actually a copulating pair of… I'll say robber flies? As they whizzed by me I couldn't quite tell what was happening, so I followed until they landed and I could sidle up and play voyeur. As the male gripped the branch above above him, he inseminated the female below while she was busy feasting on her nuptial gift. 

I returned to Minto-Brown again in the morning, when I wasn't racing the sun. But I did soon decide to see how many species I could rack up before I needed food or water (neither of which I'd thought to bring). There's a certain trail that I recently visited, sans camera, when I happened upon a very cooperative Red-breasted Sapsucker (x Red-naped Sapsucker hybrid? See comment below). I'd cursed myself for not being better prepared, and crossed my fingers that I might luck into another close encounter. 

I was NOT disappointed. It turned out that this particular stand of trees is frequented by two sapsuckers, and their handiwork was visible all around. I could have watched them all day. 

Even though we've lived hear for (just about) two years, and Minto-Brown is one of the premier parks in the Salem area, there are miles of trails we've never explored. You think you're going to take one path to the end, and then it splits. You choose a path and it splits again. Now I'd decided to finally do some serious exploring, and the park rejected me. Time and again I'd have to backtrack after finding trails flooded out. 

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Hopefully not the last Varied Thrush of the season

Brush Rabbit

Song Sparrow

I did still manage to see more of the park than ever before, and wherever I explored there was one constant: singing Bewick's Wrens. They were everywhere. And very much out in the open. The three photos below are of three different individual birds - just a small sample of the day's tally.

Bewick's Wren

Solo Birding, or An Easy-to-Swallow Outing to Ankeny NWR

Last weekend Maureen had to travel to San Diego for a conference, leaving me to figure what to do with myself for a few days. Saturday, I thought I'd venture out and take some macro shots, hoping the weather would cooperate. But at every point during the day, it threatened to rain. I'd been keeping myself cooped up for fear the storm clouds would break open, but at a certain point I just got tired of waiting, so late in the day I headed down to Ankeny NWR to take my chances.

A sinister-looking Brewer's Blackbird greeted me in the parking lot

Northern Flicker

Ankeny's mostly off-limits between October and March to give "Dusky" Canada Geese and other waterfowl undisturbed wintering habitat. With spotting scope you can scan a good portion of the area from the parking lots, but Pintail Marsh also has a 1.8 mile loop trail and it's been ages since we've been able to walk it. A couple of times since it's opened back up, we've taken short trips after work and checked in some of the willows along the trailhead without getting very far. I hadn't expected to get far this time either, but the birds kept drawing me in.

Red-winged Blackbird

Savannah Sparrow

By far the most active were the Yellow-rumped Warblers. Both the "Myrtle" and "Audubon's" Yellow-rumps are sporting their fancy breeding costumes and flycatching left and right. "Myrtle" seem like they're outnumbering their brighter, fancier-looking brothers and sisters right now, which is still surprising to an easterner like me who thought we were swapping Myrtles for Audubon's when we moved out here. Maureen's been waiting and hoping for a handsome male Audubon's to show off for her, but so far hasn't found any cooperative volunteers. But the minute she leaves town, this happens… and with her own camera no less.

"Audubon's" Yellow-rumped Warbler

"Myrtle" Yellow-rumped Warbler

A gentle warbling emerged from the same willows where the Yellow-rumps were frolicking. Even if it was more shy than the warblers, it was great to see my first Warbling Vireo of the year. Other FOYs included Yellow and Wilson's Warblers, and Yellow-headed Blackbirds. At around this same point in the trail as the vireo I noticed the damselflies were swarming a certain kind of grassy seed heads. One of them let me get close enough to snap a photo with my macro.

Warbling Vireo

Bushtit

Least Sandpiper

The other major source of activity was the swallows. From the parking lot, you can see them swirling around and around over a cluster of snags, occasionally landing on them in tight groups. Now that I was able to get farther along the trail, I came across a nesting box complex, and the Tree Swallows were getting to work.

It was mostly Tree Swallows I should say, but there was at least one Violet-green getting ready to nest, and, as you can see, we were fast friends. Cliff and Barn Swallows are also making their way to Ankeny, although the Cliffs are likely to nest in other parts of the refuge, where there are structures for them to build on.

Violet-green Swallow

While the swallows and other songbirds are preparing their nests and pairing off, the Canada Geese are already busy raising their first brood. I'm pretty sure these were the first baby birds either of us have seen so far this year. Lets home some of these little guys survive the inevitable onslaught of the eagles, harriers, red-tails, and other raptors that use the marsh as their hunting grounds. Good luck, little ones.

Canada Goose family

Red-tailed Hawk