Oregon and Washington Part Two

On Friday, we went to Clark's County Fair.  There are lots of farm animals, food, and amusement park rides.  There were tons of barn swallows flying around, though they went too fast for me to take a photo.  On one lone tree far from the others, there were brown creepers that I was able to photograph.  Brown creepers are found in the central and southeastern United States in the winter and the rest of the United States, part of Mexico, and southern Canada all year round.  They summer in southeastern Canada.  They are found in wet, shaded woods, and blend in very well with bark.  They are very small and woodpecker-like.  They're brown above and pale below with spots on their heads and backs, stripes on their wings, pale eyebrows, and curved beaks.  They are very quick little birds and they remind me of hummingbirds.  Two of them were racing after each other around the tree.  I've seen some other brown creepers since the fair, and they are very hard to take photos of since they're so fast.  Below are two photos of one of the creepers.

Brown Creeper

Brown Creeper

After the fair, we went to the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and took a driving tour.  It is a very beautiful place.   There were fields, woods, and ponds.  Below are five photos of views in the refuge.

There were not as many common yellowthroats as I would have thought.  I only saw two or three in the long time that we were there.  One of them was a young one.  It was patchy-colored with yellow edges on its beak.  Below is the young yellowthroat.

Common Yellowthroat

There were many other young birds there as well.  There was a mother mallard leading her seven ducklings.  They were swimming very quickly down a creek and I had almost run alongside them to take a photo.  Below are the line of ducks.

Mallards

There were also many, many young American coots.  For some reason, there tons of young coots and very, very few adult ones.  The young ones are fluffy and gray.  Some of the ones I saw were almost white on their heads.  Below is one of the young coots.

American Coot

There were a few great blue herons around.  One was fairly close by.  Below is a photo of it.

Great Blue Heron

Another young animal was a white-tailed deer fawn.  It was very small and I could just barely see it in the tall grass.  It was accompanied by its mother, who was grazing and occasionally watched us.  She was a very pretty deer.  Below is a photo of her.

White-Tailed Deer

A mammal that was not so great to see was the nutria (or coypu).  They are very large rodents from South America.  They resemble beavers when they're swimming, but they are smaller and have rat-like tails.  They were raised in Oregon (and other places) for meat and fur, but escaped and established themselves in nearby wetlands.  Unfortunately, like most introduced species, they are driving out native ones.  They also eat farmers' crops.  We saw a few of them.  Below is one of them scratching itself.

Nutria

There were many chickadees hopping around in a tree, though I wasn't able to photograph them because a downy woodpecker flew in and scared them away.  Downy woodpeckers are found all year round throughout the United States, Canada, and southern Alaska, though they are not found in the desert parts of the southwest.  They are small, black and white woodpeckers similar to Nuttall's woodpeckers.  They have striped faces, spotted wings, and a white patch on their upper backs.  They are plain white underneath and males have a small red patch on the backs of their heads.  They are very similar to hairy woodpeckers but are much, much smaller with shorter beaks.  Below is the woodpecker.

Downy Woodpecker

Another little bird we saw was a pretty male American kestrel.  It flew across a field and then landed on a post for several seconds before flying off.  Below is the kestrel.

American Kestrel

Some very neat birds we saw were yellow-headed blackbirds.  They're neat because they're very pretty and I've never seen them before.  They are found in most of the western United States and southern Canada in the summer and in southern California south through Mexico in the winter.  In small parts of the southwest and northwest, they are around all year.  However, they are only common locally, which is why I haven't ever seen them at the Buena Vista Lagoon, which is within their range.  Males are black with yellow heads and chests and white patches on their wings, which are clearly seen in flight.  Females are dark brown with yellow faces and chests.  There were quite a few of them mixed with red-winged blackbirds in the reeds and beside the road.  Below is a group of them.  The streaked bird second from the right is a female red-winged blackbird.

Yellow-Headed Blackbirds and Red-Winged Blackbird

We saw northern harriers in a field.  There were many of them flying around.  Northern harriers are found in the southern United States in the winter, on the Pacific coast and northern United States all year round, and most of Canada and Alaska in the summer.  Males are gray above and white below.  Females are streaked brown all over.  Juveniles are mostly plain brown above and orange below.  All have long striped tails, white rumps, and owl-like faces.  Two of the harriers were acting oddly.  At first I thought it was a mating ritual, but then I noticed that one was a juvenile and the other was a female.  The female had its wings spread out and would run around the juvenile like that.  Then they both flew up and around and around each other.  Below are two photos of them.  The first of the juvenile and female.  The second is just the female.

Northern Harriers

Northern Harrier

Other raptors we saw were turkey vultures.  Three of them were just wandering around in the grass.  They weren't eating; just walking.  One of them lay down.  Below are the three of them.  The one in the middle is lying down.

Turkey Vultures