Fox Sparrow hunt in Wasco

On Saturday 5-12-18 I wandered out to Wasco County to see what I could find in the Mt Hood Nat Forest.  I was hoping to find some Fox Sparrows.  I started out at Fivemile Butte.  The shrubs on the top are great for the sparrows.  This is a photo from last October just to give you an idea of the habitat.

I quickly found four Fox Sparrows, all singing from the top of their own pine tree.  The large bills, no wing bars, spotted inverted Vs on the underside, head and back gray-brown and location all led to Thick-billed Fox Sparrow.

No wing bars

I have loaded Raven onto my computer (the free version)  I took this spectrogram from the above bird, see video below.  I can't figure out how, if possible , to load what I see play in Raven onto a blog.  What I had to do was to go to a website that strips the video down to an audio file, then you load it into Raven and you can see the spectrogram. All rather cool, the website strips it for free, but then offers ads to you, I just closed the site every time I used it and ignored all the ads.

Here is the video from my camera.  I know it wanders, just close your eyes.

Another Thick-billed, the associated spectrogram and original video.

Bird's song.  BTW I heard zero call notes, just singing.

Just for comparison, here is a spectrogram of a singing Fox Sparrow, thought to be Thick-billed from the Steens, bird was in sagebrush.

And last two Fox Sparrows seen up on butte:

All sparrows dove for cover at one moment, I looked around and spied this Sharp-shinned Hawk approaching. Darn good eyes on these sparrows!

Mt Adams, right, and Mt Rainier, left, looking good.

And Mt Hood.

Lots of Dusky Flycatchers were seen all day.

Helping out were Mo,

Tess

And a shaved for the summer, Huck.

Singing Dusky Flycatcher, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Cassin's Finch and a typical Hermit Warbler.at bout 8 sec.  Lots of Hermit were singing all day, found a few Townsend's when I tried to get out to a sparrow patch on Flag Point (too much snow).

Pine Siskins were dashing around at all sites visited.

Western Tanager

On the road out of Fivemile Butte, this MacGillivray's Warbler was singing away.

Last site visited was this partial clearcut I like to visit, late in day, so did not see a bunch of birds.  But Western Bluebird, Cassin's Finch, and Dusky Flycatchers were still active.

Map of area.

Here are some links that have info on Fox Sparrows in Oregon:

Ebird Fox Sparrow paper

Bird Guide Fox Sparrow

Thanks for the visit!  Pelagic next week then Lake and Harney County!

More Eastside of Mt Hood

The last few weekends I have birded some new trails in Wasco County. One was the Fifteenmile Creek Trail from FR 4421 up to the 457 trail interchange. Best access is to go out FR 44 to the turn-off for Fifteenmile Ck Campground (FR 4420), then stay on paved road all the way to edge of Mt Hood Nat Forest, then turn left.  The trail cuts through an oak forest up to the true firs.  It was very birdy and fun to explore.  





I was lazy and did not take any photos but here is a Hermit Warbler singing a typical song version heard on the eastern side of Hood.




My ebird list:

Sharp-shinned Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  2
Williamson's Sapsucker  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Hairy Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker  3
Western Wood-Pewee  11
Hammond's Flycatcher  3
Cassin's Vireo  1
Warbling Vireo  7
Gray Jay  2
Steller's Jay  2
Common Raven  1
Chestnut-backed Chickadee  11
Red-breasted Nuthatch  9
House Wren  2
Golden-crowned Kinglet  5
Hermit Thrush  6
American Robin  6
Nashville Warbler  5
MacGillivray's Warbler  3
Common Yellowthroat  4
Yellow Warbler  2
Yellow-rumped Warbler  3
Black-throated Gray Warbler  2
Hermit Warbler  7
Wilson's Warbler  1
Spotted Towhee  4
Song Sparrow  3
Dark-eyed Junco  7
Western Tanager  4
Black-headed Grosbeak  2
Cassin's Finch  1


Last weekend I camped Saturday night along FR 27.  I was hoping to hear some Flammulated Owls, but turns out I pitched my tent in the backyard of a Barred Owl family. So no other owls heard.  Flammulated Owls have been found just north of where I camped.




The next morning I hiked into the White River Wildlife Management Area. My hope was to find some hatch-year birds to photograph.  I saw a number of them, had a hard time getting them to sit still.  My favorite was a young Nashville Warbler.  I also wanted to search for Ash-throated Flycatchers.  Some have been spotted in Wasco County during the summer. But ebird has no records of them along FR 27 in the summer. I was curious if I could find a breeding pair.  None found, the hunt continues.

I had concerns about snakes so I kept Huck on a leash while I was birding the oak forest. There is another reason in photo below.

I also saw numerous deer and a bobcat.  Striped Skunk, the other option would be Western Spotted Skunk according to mammal list for Mt Hood.

This is a typical view of a side of a canyon covered in oaks.

Going down the road to Tygh Creek was a wonderful strip of woods full of Nashville and MacGillivray's Warblers.

As I mentioned, I was trying to find hatch-year birds.  Most young birds were Chipping Sparrows and a few cowbirds hanging with Cassin's Finch flocks. 

 I thought this was a female MacGillivray's Warbler. After reading The Warbler Guide I am not sure if the dark throat mottling is dark enough to kick it out of being a female.   So maybe it is a hatch-year male?  The Nashville I saw was still molting out of its downy feathers,  this shows none of those feathers. So I am sticking with female Mac.

I heard a number of Gray Flycatchers calling in the oak forest.  I was thinking the very short primary projection might make this a young bird.  I had a hard time aging them.  Pyle says young birds should have a strong lemon wash on undersides. I did not see any wash on this bird.

House Wrens were common and out singing.

My eBird list:

Wild Turkey  3

Turkey Vulture  3
Red-tailed Hawk  2
Mourning Dove  4
Northern Pygmy-Owl  1
Vaux's Swift  9
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  1
Western Wood-Pewee  4
Hammond's Flycatcher  1
Gray Flycatcher  7
Empidonax sp.  2
Cassin's Vireo  3
Steller's Jay  2
American Crow  3
Common Raven  1
Mountain Chickadee  12
Red-breasted Nuthatch  13
Rock Wren  1
House Wren  4
Western Bluebird  8
Hermit Thrush  1
American Robin  4
Orange-crowned Warbler  2
Nashville Warbler  9
MacGillivray's Warbler  8
Yellow-rumped Warbler  3
Black-throated Gray Warbler  4
Spotted Towhee  4
Chipping Sparrow  21
White-crowned Sparrow  3
Dark-eyed Junco  12
Western Tanager  6
Black-headed Grosbeak  2
Brown-headed Cowbird  6
Cassin's Finch  12

My second stop was a dry pine forest, I hiked up a road to see what birds were out.  By then it was noon and hot.  All the birds were quiet except a few meadowlarks.  Huck had enough and turned around and went back to the car.  He was waiting for me upon my return.

On the way home I stopped off at Tygh Ridge Road to see the Grasshopper Sparrows.

Horned Lark were also sharing the fence posts.

Thanks for visiting!