[obol] Baskett Slough, Buntings ETC

[Norgren Family]

     The Indigo Bunting was absurdly easy
to locate at 6:30am today. I could practically
hear it from the parking lot. Alas the Ash-throated
Flycatcher was not in evidence. Most intriguing
was a warbler singing briefly in the oaks immediately
upslope from the trail that goes east at the fork.
I am quite weak in identifying warbler songs,
but know all the species that should occur on the
floor of the Willamette Valley. This was not one
of them. It sang only briefly, just before my
departure.
      Just east of the trail before it forks,
or downhill from the east branch after the fork,
is a very fresh burn scar. To its immediate east
is a gulch. There is a medium-sized oak on each
side of this gulch and that's where the Indigo
Bunting sang almost continually while I was there.
It sang in flight, it sang while foraging in the
tall grass beneath the more easterly of the two
oaks. The dense foliage does make it difficult to
see, even though it perches near the outer tips of
the branches.
      But fortunately there is a dead sweet cherry
in the gulch which forms a conspicuous snag. Twice
while I was there the Bunting perched on the very
top of this snag for several minutes at a stretch.
Hopefully he will reward the patience of subsequent
seekers with a similar display.    Lars Norgren