Loggerhead Shrike and other "eastern Oregon" birds in Brownsville-area grasslands

[Joel Geier]

Around noon today, on my way to a Horned Lark monitoring site on a private conservation easement south of Brownsville, I happened across a Loggerhead Shrike that was perched along the utility wires on the south side of Diamond Hill Rd., just east of I-5. I took a few crummy "through-the-windshield" photos which I'll share later once I get them off of my camera, if any of them turned out reasonably well. The bird was actively hunting, mostly sallying after flying insects, and occasionally going down into the grass on the north side of the road.

The area on that side of the road, "Diamond Hill Wetlands," is written up as site S6 in the Willamette Valley Birding Trail guide (no public access but a good place to look for Short-eared Owls and other raptors during the winter/spring months, from along the public road). Diamond Hill is a small hill a little farther north after Diamond Hill Rd. bends north and turns into Gap Rd. A local resident tells me that he's found Pacific Rattlesnakes denning there in some numbers.

Earlier this season I've also run across a Black-necked Stilt and twice a female Wilson's Phalarope. Unfortunately both of those were spots not accessible to the general public, but some other birds have been in better spots: Western Meadowlarks, Grasshopper Sparrows and Vesper Sparrows along the eastern part of Belts Rd., a couple of Western Kingbirds where Belts Rd. bends north and runs into Tub Run Rd., and Bullock's Orioles here and there. Last May or June I encountered a stray migrant Lark Sparrow farther west on Belts Rd., and Ash-throated Flycatchers may also nest locally in some years. A couple of pairs of Golden Eagles have nested in the nearby Coburg Hills in recent years.

The birds (and snakes) that I've mentioned above are nowadays mostly what we tend to think of as "eastern Oregon" birds, but most if not all of them were likely more common in the Willamette Valley in the past. It goes to show, where grassland habitats have been preserved and/or restored, you can get an inkling of what the Willamette Valley might have been like prior to Euro-American settlement when prairie and oak savanna were the dominant habitats.

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Joel Geier

Camp Adair area north of Corvallis