Now that I’m attempting to remain in the eBird “Top Ten” list of species seen in the ABA Area (North America north of Mexico), I realize that there’s another birder (Charlie Bostwick from Georgia) tied with me for 10th place! Well, shoot! Up until now, I hadn’t been in competition with anyone but myself during this Peregrination year, and my focus was on seeing “Life Birds”.
Sigh . . . an adult Emperor Goose has been seen just across the Columbia River in Oregon, on Sauvie’s Island. Since I’d not seen this species yet this year, I made the drive down I-5 and crossed the Columbia River at Longview, stopping en route at the old Trojan Plant to sort through several hundred Cackling Geese near the roadway for anything odd or interesting.
The Trojan site was developed by PGE as Oregon’s only commercial nuclear facility in the early 1970s. Vocal opposition to the plant, as well as evidence of shoddy construction, finally led to its shut-down in 1993 after yet another leak of radioactive water. The plant was decommissioned soon after, and the structures were finally torn town in 2006. The former grounds provide habitat for birds, now, as well as being operated as a park.
With just the ‘usual suspects’ at Trojan, I arrived at Sauvie’s Island headed north out Reeder Road toward the Sauvie Island Wildlife Area operated by the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife. You’ll see the island’s name as Sauvie or Sauvie’s; and pronounced “Saw-vees”. My Grandfather had, many years ago, met members of the old family, and told me they pronounced their name “Soo-vey”.
I always stop to scan through the goose flocks for birds that have been banded and marked by waterfowl managers, as I’d been paid to do so while working for the US Fish and Wildlife Service back in the Willamette Valley during the 1980s. While enumerating geese back then, there would be dozens of plastic neck collars to read. Now, looking through a thousand birds might yield a few collars - hopefully close enough to read one.
I did read a few collars on Cackling Geese, and one on an adult Snow Goose. As with a bird band you find on a window-killed robin or a sparrow your cat brings in, if you can read the plastic neck collar on a goose, you can (should!) report the number to the Bird Banding Laboratory.
Another benefit of slowing down to look for marked birds is that one can sometimes find the ‘odd duck’ (in this case, a goose . . .) among the members of the flocks. Here, a “Blue Goose” joins the “Snows”. The “Blue” goose is a color phase of the Snow Goose, and is relatively common in the Central Flyway, but is uncommon in the flocks here in the Pacific Northwest - indeed, throughout the “West”. The blue-phase and white-phase were considered separate species until 1983, but were “lumped” following genetic studies.
Every once in a while, an eagle would pass over and the flock would become airborne. Sometimes, they seemed just to flush and re-settle for no discernible reason.
Oregon Birders Bill Tice and Steve Nord let me know that a Vesper Sparrow had been seen today along Rentenaar Road, just north of where we were, as well as an intermittent Black-and-White Warbler along Walton Beach. They were going to look for the Vesper, so I gave up on endlessly scoping through the goose flocks, and opted to follow them to the sparrow site. I’d seen many individuals of this species through the year, but it’s always nice to see one in western Oregon or Washington. Sadly, I’d let my camera battery get low, and it ‘died’ before I could get a photo of the Vesper . . . Thank goodness, Bill and Steve got decent photos.
Darkness comes in the early afternoon in the Pacific Northwest in December, so I headed toward home, having ‘dipped’ on the Emperor Goose. But, there’s more opportunities before the end of the year, so “Hope Springs Eternal.”
Trojan Plant eBird checklist is Here
South Sauvie Island eBird checklist is Here
Sauvie Island Reeder Road eBird checklist is Here
Sauvie Island WA Observation deck eBird checklist is HereSauvie Island Rentenaar Road eBird checklist is Here
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