Kingston Prairie wildflowers & birds

[Joel Geier]

This morning I visited Kingston Prairie Preserve, as part of a grassland bird monitoring project. This preserve, in Linn County a little southeast of Stayton, was formerly owned by The Nature Conservancy, and now by Greenbelt Land Trust.

I was mainly there to check for Oregon Vesper Sparrows and Western Meadowlarks. I arrived at sunrise, just in time to watch the nearly full moon setting in the west. I heard three Vesper Sparrows (one singing on the preserve, the other two on neighboring properties). At least half a dozen of male meadowlarks were singing around the area, answered by a few females. At least one pair (maybe two pairs) of Western Kingbirds were chattering around and flying between the oaks.

Far out from the road, I heard a male Grasshopper Sparrow sing a couple of times, then caught a glimpse as he flew between some low shrubs. Savannah Sparrows were also around; one presumed female fluttered her wings in a solicitation display. A male Northern Harrier was agitated as I walked through that area, giving "ki-ki-ki" calls like they do when defending a nest area, and he made a couple of low passes over my head until I moved away.

This site has very thin topsoil over a rocky substrate (likely why most of it was never plowed), so it's already drying up fast in this weather. However in a few areas there is still quite a bit of camas, few-flowered shooting star, saxifrage, and other prairie wildflowers blooming.

A Salem Statesman Journal outdoors writer, Bobbie Snead, ran a very nice article on this site a couple of weeks ago:
https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/life/2021/04/14/naturalists-eye-kingston-prairie/3050320001/

The wildflower bloom is less intense now than when this article was written, but there's still quite a bit to see and experience out there.

--

Joel Geier

Camp Adair area north of Corvallis