Townsend's Solitaire

 

My daughter graduated from the Univ. of Oregon this past Monday, so I took that day off from work as well as Tuesday. Since my wife and daughter were pretty tuckered out, I decided to slip in some birding Tuesday morning.

I decided to try my luck at Trillium Lake up on Mt Hood. While the hike around the lake was gorgeous, the birding was a little slow. I got glimpses of a couple of possible interesting birds, but was never able to get a clear view to identify them.

Feeling a little frustrated, I decided to make a quick stop at Tamanawas Falls Trail before heading home. I've made two stops there in the past and both times had multiple looks of American Dippers.  This time was no different, as there were both adult and juveniles along the rapidly flowing stream.

As I sat on the bank watching an adult Dipper feeding a juvenile, a rather nondescript grayish bird landed on a branch across the stream. I watched it, rather puzzled as to what it was, when it flew across the stream and landed on a branch about twelve feet away from me.

I started shooting away as it sat there keeping an eye on me, but not too concerned with my presence. Then it flew back to the other side of the stream only to return to the same branch beside me a minute later. It must have done this three or four times allowing me to get shots from the front, side and rear.

I had a hunch that the bird was a Townsend's Solitaire and sure enough, that's what it turned out to be. My first sighting of this species. Distinguishing characteristics beside the gray coloring is the obvious white eye ring, the white outer tail feathers and a broad creamy wing bar which stands out when the bird is in flight as seen above.

 

As I was on my way back to the parking area along Highway 35, I saw a couple of interesting birds on the ground among the picnic tables.  Before I could get a good look, they flew off back towards the stream. I went looking for them and while I'm not sure if I found what I'd seen, I did find an adult Townsend's Solitaire feeding a juvenile on a log across the stream.

Tamanawas Falls Trail continues to a great stop when up on Mount Hood.   

American Dipper

I made a trip to Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood on Saturday. Things were somewhat slow as usual. I had hoped to see Cassin's Finches as I regularly see them there, but not this time. I did get good looks at some Ravens and saw a Fox Sparrow and a large flock of Golden-crowned Kinglets with a couple of Ruby-crown's sprinkled in for the first time up there.
Before heading home I decided to make a quick stop at the burn where there have been reports of a variety of woodpeckers. But, before I got there, I came upon Tamanawas Falls. I stopped there the summer of 2010 and saw my only American Dipper. Since I was low on gas and short on time, I decided to stop there instead of looking for woodpeckers. It turned out to be a good choice as I saw as many as six Dippers and got very close to one as you can see above.

The image above shows the stream where I saw them. It's amazing to watch these birds actually dive head first into the water, sometimes riding the current underwater looking for insects to eat.

Here's an image from across the stream of a Dipper with a successful catch.

American Dipper

Today I spent the morning and early afternoon on Mount Hood. I stopped at Timberline Lodge first, hoping again to see a Rosy Finch. Unfortunately, I struck out again. The weather was not good; there was fog, mist, wind and cold (about 35 degrees). The birds were far and few. I did see a male Cassin's Finch, several Dark-eyed Juncos and I believe a Juvenile Chipping Sparrow. I also got a few shots of a Mule Deer Buck.
After a couple of hours of hiking around Timberline Lodge without much luck, I decided to try the East side of the mountain as the sun would peek through the clouds occasionally which got me thinking that the clouds were hung up on the West side and the East side was sunny. That guess turned out to be true.
Reviewing the Mt Hood Loop of the Oregon Cascades Birding Trail on my iPad, I decided to check out Tamanawas Falls Trail. The guide stated that American Dippers could be seen there and as I have never seen a Dipper, so I thought it was worth a shot.
There were several cars parked at the trail's head and the trail was is heavy use. As a result, the birds were scarce. Early along the trail (it's 2 miles each way to the falls), I noticed a short side trail to the stream's edge. I had Dippers in mind as I approached the bank of the stream. The water moved rapidly across the rocks and appeared to be an ideal Dipper area. Sure enough, I was there no longer than 30 seconds when a Dipper swooped in and began looking for food along the rocks.
The top image above is the best of a hand full of pictures I was able to get. The bottom image isn't that great, but it does show the Dipper's head and chest submerged in the water as it looked for food. The water was moving fast so it had to be quite strong to hold itself in place while holding its head upstream against the water.