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Fall Bird Walk at Soap Creek Valley - October 3, 2021

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Soap Creek Properties Bird Walk Report, ​by Mike Unger (October 4, 2021)

Yesterday morning, we held the Love Your Watershed: Fall Bird Walk sponsored by the Luckiamute Watershed Council.  We had 12 people participate in the walk including a few of the property owners.  It was a very pleasant morning.  The temperatures ranged from 42 to 62 degrees with mostly clear skies. The wind was calm during the entire walk.  We walked about 1.7 miles as we covered the many varied habitats of the properties including restored oak savanna, meadows, wetlands, and riparian forest. The bird activity was decent for this time of year as we observed (saw or heard) 27 species.
 
We are indebted to the property owners who welcomed us to their properties.  The owners including Faye, Kevin and Janet provided us with the history of the properties as well as sharing their enormous efforts to restore the properties to their natural state.  Also, many thanks to the Benton Soil and Water Conservation District and the Soap Creek Schoolhouse Foundation for their contributions to the walk.
 
The highlights were as follows:

• There were quite a few highlights of the day including seeing four Western Bluebirds.  All four were together in a tree.
• There was quite a bit of activity in the trees with berries on them.  There were lots of Cedar Waxwings along with a few robins, and a Varied Thrush feasting on the madrone berries.
• The Steller’s Jays made their presence known throughout the walk.  The jays were very loud and boisterous.  Many of the jays were seen with acorns in their bill. 
• We observed four of the six expected woodpecker species including Downy Woodpecker, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Acorn Woodpecker and Northern Flicker (heard).  We got good looks at the Downy Woodpeckers and Red-breasted Sapsuckers. The misses were the Hairy and Pileated Woodpeckers.
• We saw nine (9) Band-tailed Pigeons feeding on berries in a madrone tree.
• Other observations included two Sharp-shinned Hawks, three Red Crossbills and several ravens.

 
Mike Unger
Keizer, OR

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All bird photos below courtesy of Donna Hendricks

Soap Creek Properties Bird Walk Checklist Summary - 10/3/2021
Identified Species: 27
9 Band-tailed Pigeon
1 Anna's Hummingbird
2 Turkey Vulture
2 Sharp-shinned Hawk
3 Red-breasted Sapsucker
1 Acorn Woodpecker
2 Downy Woodpecker
3 Northern Flicker
25 Steller's Jay
5 California Scrub-Jay
3 Common Raven
7 Black-capped Chickadee
4 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
2 Red-breasted Nuthatch
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
4 Brown Creeper
1 Bewick's Wren
4 Western Bluebird
1 Varied Thrush
3 American Robin
11 Cedar Waxwing
3 Red Crossbill
1 American Goldfinch
9 Dark-eyed Junco
4 Song Sparrow
10 Spotted Towhee
4 passerine sp.

Sharp-shinned hawk

Varied thrush (top) and juvenile cedar waxwing (bottom)

Red-breasted sapsucker

Western bluebird

Band-tailed pigeons

Cedar waxwing

Pacific wren