We don’t have ten feet of snow like Tahoe, nor baked cattle in the field like north Texas, but we have had a flurry of weather changes…snow, rain, wind and rain, graupel, more sun., leaden skies, rain again…and the birds have had to cope. As inconsistent as the weather is, some wintering birds are highly regular, despite irregular conditions. Crows are up before dawn, sounding off. The first small birds visible are almost always juncos. Often they have a lone mascot, a yellow-rump. Boith species seem to ignore temperature and even light precip. The Varied Thrush are calling by 8AM at the latest. Jays are rarely up early. They’ve cached food so I suspect they having peanuts for breakfast deep inside a conifer that sheds snow and rain. So too the tree squirrels. Cavity-roosting birds are much warmer in their holes–woodpeckers, nuthatches, Bushtits, hummers, chickadees…so they rise later after temps have begun to rise. Some of them seem especially loath to get wet, like Bushtits and nuthatches, kinglets, too, though we rarely get them here. Not early risers but avid at eating–regardless of weather–are the various finches. The winter sparrows almost never show up in snow or rain (juncos excepted)–towhee, gold-crown, white-throat, song.
RED-EYE SPECIAL
SNOWY BACKS
Treed turkey in Clark Creek Park. When frightened they can fly almost vertically.
954 Ratcliff Drive SE, Marion, Oregon, US
Mar 3, 2024
18 species
Wild Turkey 3
Mourning Dove 10
Downy Woodpecker 1
Steller’s Jay X
California Scrub-Jay X
American Crow X
Black-capped Chickadee X
Chestnut-backed Chickadee X
Bushtit 25
Varied Thrush 1
Lesser Goldfinch 15
American Goldfinch 30
Dark-eyed Junco 30
Golden-crowned Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 1
Spotted Towhee 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1 first seen here in over three years
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
