[obol] Airlie Trumpeter Swan flock update etc.

[Joel Geier]

Hello folks,

After two days of sitting around with a flu bug I felt like going
somewhere, but was not entirely up to speed, so I did a little driving
loop around the Suver-Airlie area in s. Polk Co. Our dog joined me
thinking that a walk was in store. She was bitterly disappointed.
Anyway, I did see some birds.

About 200 DUNLIN were wheeling around a puddle in a frozen field just
south of Suver Junction (Hwy 99W x Suver/Airlie Rd.), and nearby about
500 STARLINGS were doing their best dunlinpersonation.

About 50 swans were in the field on the NW side of Suver Junction. Some
of them (a bit less than half) appeared to be TUNDRA SWANS including one
with a blue collar (previously noticed by Sylvia Maulding). The rest of
them (that's a bit more than half, if I'm doing the math right in the
wake of the flu) were TRUMPETER SWANS. 

Farther west on Airlie Rd., by the vacant yellow farmhouse where Airlie
Rd. bends north, was another flock of 14 TRUMPETER SWANS which bugled a
bit to help out on the ID.

Somewhere in between, a BALD EAGLE was flapping ponderously behind a
hundred or so CANADA GEESE which were still accelerating, while another
2000 or so Cacklers wheeled around in panic (er, defensive agitation) in
the field that the geese had just flown out of.

At the Camp Adair Rifle Range, three COMMON RAVENS were perched in small
trees, contemplating hundreds of AMERICAN ROBINS as they worked over the
thawing grass field on the other side of Rifle Range Rd.

Along Military Rd. I saw another group of CANADA GEESE standing around
by the side of a frozen pond, suspiciously close to an unused backhoe.
It looked like they were discussing how to hotwire the thing and then
use it to knock a hole in the ice. But maybe I'm gantherpomorphizing too
much.

Good birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
joel.geier at peak.org