Wings & Wine Festival: May 14, 2011

Bird watchers, wine lovers, and nature enthusiasts are invited to the Sixth Annual Fern Ridge Wings and Wine Festival scheduled for Saturday, May 14, 2011 near Veneta, Oregon, west of Eugene. A wide array of activities will be held throughout the day at Domaine Meriwether’s new winery and nearby Fern Ridge Reservoir, one of Oregon’s best birding areas. The day’s schedule includes bird and nature walks, hands-on workshops, educational talks, children’s activities, wine tasting with local wineries and sailing, kayak and canoe tours. Many activities are free, but some require pre-registration and a fee.

More info

Best recent birding blog posts

Wilson's Snipe, Hines, Oregon, 28 May 2010 by Greg Gillson.

 

There have been several blog posts by birders lately that I have found extremely interesting. If you haven't read them you should!

Are there really fewer snipe this year than last? Mike Patterson of North Coast Diaries discusses impression versus real data in Sniping about observer bias.

How can birders learn to identify bird songs and calls if they can't even Hear the motorcycle? Don Freiday posts this interesting discussion on the ABA Blog.

Bill Schmoker gives us The Low Down on photographing birds. What an excellent article published on the ABA blog.

A topic close to my heart, David Sibley discusses Identifying small songbirds by flight style.

In the Island Nature blog, Dave Ingram followed up the Progress of Caddisfly Creek, a salmon habitat greenway protected area on Vancouver Island. Yes, indeed, it is well-protected from any salmon!

Over at BirdFellow, Dave Irons writes about taking notes of rare birds on A lost art? Writing descriptions of rare birds.

Friday Foto: Water skiing Bufflehead

Bufflehead, Portland, Oregon, 19 February 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

This Bufflehead, skiing in for a landing, is one of many photos of waterfowl I was able to obtain on a recent visit to Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in Portland.

See a previous post on Bufflehead.

Watch out for those pincers!

Pied-billed Grebe, Commonwealth Lake, Beaverton, Oregon, 2 February 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

The Pied-billed Grebe above has a tiger by the tail! Well, actually, it's a crayfish, but still... it better be careful!

In one study in the East, crustaceans such as crayfish made up about 20% of the diet of Pied-billed Grebes, fish 20%, and aquatic insects most of the rest. However, crayfish were consumed primarily in the winter.

Crayfish are not tolerant of polluted water so, evidently, the water in this small lake in a busy city park is not too bad.

Crayfish are also called crawfish or crawdads. Though it's been quite a while since I've been to a crawdad feed, I remember liking them better than lobster, crab, and many kinds of shrimp.

Suddenly I have this craving for grilled shrimp....

I must find the behavior of Pied-billed Grebes interesting, or at least photogenic, as my previous posts on this bird discuss sinking and feather shuffling.

Friday Foto: White-throated Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow, Beaverton, Oregon, 19 February 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

A bird at my feeder. Taken through the window, looking down on the bird, so not good technique or style. But it is my best photo of this species so far.

White-throated Sparrows are regular, but rather scarce in the Pacific NW. They nest across Canada, from NE British Columbia eastward and in the US around the Great Lakes an NE states to New York. Primarily they migrate east of the Rocky Mountains, but some winter and migrate through the Pacific NW. They often show up at feeders.

Though similar to the more common White-crowned Sparrow, they are brighter on the back, with bright rusty wing edges--so often stand out as different. They sing in migration (sometimes in winter, too) and are quite loud.