Cassin's Finch, Common Goldeneye and albinistic White-crowned Sparrow at E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area

[Joel Geier]

Today around noon I was out for another walk around E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area, when I noticed what on first glance I expected would be a Purple Finch. But when I got the binoculars focused I noticed the contrasting very bright red crown and fine streaking on otherwise whitish flanks. First time I've ever seen a CASSIN'S FINCH on the Willamette Valley floor, though I've seen a few on Mary's Peak and once in Bald Peak State Park north of McMinnville.

Also unusual for this neighborhood, just a few minutes earlier on the same walk I saw a female COMMON GOLDENEYE swimming with a female Bufflehead on the main marsh up in the NW corner of the wildlife area. This was the second goldeneye that I'd seen while out on walks from our house in the space of 48 hours, as on Sunday afternoon a male was on the sump that catches runoff from the Coffin Butte landfill.

Just to make it seem a little more like eastern Oregon, a WESTERN MEADOWLARK was singing along a hedgerow in a field just east of the wildlife area (though I didn't see the Prairie Falcon there today).

Yesterday's most unusual bird was a wanna-be Snow Bunting that I found with a very big flock of juncos, White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows (with a White-throated or two) in the south end of the wildlife area. From a distance it appeared to be all white except for the wings and head. After staking it out for a while, eventually I got a better look and saw that it was an ALBINISTIC WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. The head pattern was fully developed as on a typical adult bird, and the wings were also normal brownish, but everything else was white. Very cool-looking bird!

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Joel Geier

Tampico area north of Corvallis

[Joel Geier]

Correction: On that albinistic White-crowned Sparrow, I think the tail was also dark -- but all of the body feathers looked white. Will try to take a camera with me and get a photo next time I'm down that way.

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