I made my first visit to the Sandy River Delta area this past Saturday. As with all new areas, I spent some time just learning the place. It was interesting as I was expecting a sunny day and it started out that way when I left home from Wilsonville, but as I started traveling east on I-84, it started getting cloudy and gloomy and stayed that way the whole time I was there.As with most places now, there were a fair number of juveniles. I found a couple of juvenile Willow Flycatchers (along with juvenile Common Yellowthroats and Lazuli Buntings) in an active Blackberry patch. I have to thank members of the Portland Area Birds with their help in identifying the flycatcher as I don't see a lot of flycatchers for some reason and of course the Empidonax genus can be a challenge as they are very similar in appearance. Lack of eye ring, habit (they nest in bushes like Blackberries), and a browner coloration rather than greenish were reasons given for choosing a Willow Flycatcher.
When birding gets slow as it does in Summer, I tend to start taking pictures of insects and flowers. Flowers are best in the Spring and insects are better later in the Summer. Such was the case last Saturday at Sandy River Delta. I didn't see many birds, but insects were thriving and I even saw my first Northern Red-legged Frog. It jumped out in front of me as I was walking a narrow path into a grove of trees. Then it sat there and posed for me for some time.
