[obol] Lunch With The Birds

[Cliff & Joanne Weber]

OBOL, hello!

Pretty good attendance today. If it keeps up, Jackson Bottom Wetlands may
have to take out an equity loan for a room addition to the north shelter.

Students from Hillsboro's Miller Education Center 7/8 came by again, and
this time, they were in for a special treat because we had an unusually good
Raptor day.

For starters, one of the adult Bald Eagles was perched in their usual
"perfect picture" spot out by the old nest grove so everybody, adults
included, got a good eyeful of Chrome Dome to take home with them.

Then a Mystery Raptor appeared; perched on a birdie box a little over a half
click south; down towards the education center. As discussion blossomed
about it's ID, the MR dropped off the box as if diving on something down
below and disappeared for a while, then magically reappeared; and as dumb
luck, the forces of nature, the stars in their courses, and an act of God
would have it, the MR perched on a snag a whole lot closer to the north
shelter than before. With additional trips to the eyepieces of available
spotting scopes, and consulting a Jackson Bottom raptor chart, the consensus
was that the MR was indeed a good-looking Merlin; which was good karma
because we can add the Merlin to the Peregrine Falcon seen Oct 04, for two
really cool raptor sightings at Lunch With The Birds. When you figure we're
only out there for just one measly hour per week; we're not doing too bad.

While everything else was going on, four Red Tail Hawks, possibly five
all-totaled, entertained us with high altitude soaring and thrilling grand
stand fly-bys.

Then the Merlin finally took its leave; but within minutes was replaced by a
gorgeous male American Kestrel; who later did a fly-by too!

Not to be outdone by the raptors, plenty of Cackling Geese littered the big
lake for a while until something frightened the bee-jeebers out of them and
they took off all at one time, easily drowning out all local vehicle noises
with their frantic Goose voices.

We had some Great Blue Herons too, which can always be counted on to take up
the slack whenever other kinds of birds fail to make a show of it.

To cap off a great hour with the birds, a Snipe was spotted out there on one
of the islands; going about its business, pecking in the soil like it had
not a care in the world.

Incidentally, the regular Canada Geese that were out there today totally
ignored whatever it was that startled the Cacklers; apparently veterans of
past alarms, and not easily intimated anymore (like as in: don't sweat the
small stuff).

Silly Question: What do you call a baby bird? Give up? It's not a chick, no,
it's a Stork. For really heavy babies, they call in the Cranes.

Where? ... City of Hillsboro. Information about Jackson Bottom Wetlands (and
Lunch With The Birds) is available online at http://www.jacksonbottom.org/

Cliff & Joanne Weber
Beaverton