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Fall Bird Walk at Soap Creek Valley - October 10, 2021

Soap Creek Properties Bird Walk Report, ​by Mike Unger (October 11, 2021)

​Yesterday morning, we held the last Love Your Watershed: Fall Bird Walk sponsored by the Luckiamute Watershed Council. We had fourteen people participate in the walk including a few of the property owners. It turned out be a nice morning as the rain held off. The temperatures ranged from 49 to 59 degrees with partly cloudy skies. The wind was blowing between three to nine m.p.h., but it did not seem bad at all. We walked about 1.73 miles as we covered the many varied habitats of the properties including restored oak woodland and savanna, meadows, wetlands, and riparian forest. The bird activity was decent for this time of year as we observed (saw or heard) twenty-four species.
 
We are deeply appreciative for the property owner’s generous hospitality in welcoming us to their properties. The owners including Janet, Faye, and Kevin provided us with the history of the properties as well as sharing their enormous efforts to restore the properties to their natural state. Also, thanks to Kendra and Suzanne for organizing the walk and the Benton Soil and Water Conservation District and the Soap Creek Schoolhouse Foundation for their contributions to the walk.
 
The highlights were as follows:

• A Great Horned Owl in a Douglas fir tree that was staring down at us. It was very nice that everyone in the group was able to see the owl.  For at least one birder it was the first owl they had ever seen!
• There was quite a bit of activity in the madrone trees but not as much activity as last Sunday. The Cedar Waxwings and American Robins were enjoying the berries.
• The Steller’s Jays made their presence known again during this walk. As usual, the jays were very loud and produced continuous chatter.
• We observed four of the six expected woodpecker species including Hairy Woodpecker, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Acorn Woodpecker and Northern Flicker. We got good looks at several Red-breasted Sapsuckers. The misses were the Downy and Pileated Woodpeckers. However, Janet one of the property owners had heard two Pileated Woodpeckers earlier in the morning before the walk.
• We saw seven (7) Band-tailed Pigeons fly over the properties during the walk.
• Other observations included a Cooper’s Hawk, a Pacific Wren (heard) and several juncos.

 
Mike Unger
Keizer, OR

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Soap Creek Bird Walk Checklist Summary for October 10, 2021
Identified Species: 24
7 Band-tailed Pigeon
1 Cooper's Hawk
1 Great Horned Owl
5 Red-breasted Sapsucker
2 Acorn Woodpecker
1 Hairy Woodpecker
4 Northern Flicker
20 Steller's Jay
2 California Scrub-Jay
2 Common Raven
5 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Chestnut-backed Chickadee
4 Red-breasted Nuthatch
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Pacific Wren
2 Western Bluebird
1 Varied Thrush
12 American Robin
10 Cedar Waxwing
2 House Finch
2 American Goldfinch
5 Dark-eyed Junco
2 Song Sparrow
4 Spotted Towhee
 
Resources:
 
A few of the smartphone birding apps I mentioned during the walk include the following:

• iBird PRO – $14.99
• Sibley Birds V2 - $19.99
• Audubon Birds - Free
• eBird - Free
• Merlin Bird ID (includes Sound ID) – Free
• Raptor ID – Free I did not mention this one, but it is a great app for raptors.

 
A nice all-around nature app is iNaturalist which is free.
 
One of the best websites for birds is Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s AllAboutBirds.org
 
Last, you can get information on using the above apps from the webinars I have offered through Salem Audubon Society. Go to the YouTube website and put 'Salem Audubon Society' in the search box. Click on the “S” in the large orange circle then click on “VIDEOS” and you will see all twenty-five webinar videos.
 
Thanks to everyone who attended the bird walk. It was a wonderful group and a fun time. It was a pleasure meeting everyone.  
~Mike