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Roger’s Refuge Ramblings
by Roger Windemuth
Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge has been blessed over this
past year with rare bird-migrants
that have caused quite a stir
in the birding community.
Of course any stir in the birding
community initiated at the Ridgefield
NWR results in many visitors coming
to the refuge in search of these
rarities. Four of these
rare birds were seen on the River
“S” Unit of the refuge and three
were seen at the Carty Unit.
These seven birds that are mentioned
below are even rarer than rare
at Ridgefield NWR according to
the Ridgefield
National Wildlife Refuge Wildlife
Checklist. They are
either not listed at all or are
listed as accidental. To
be clear, I should mention that
many of these birds are not necessarily
rare to the birding community
at large, but are rare to this
particular area whether it be
the refuge, county, or state.
Also, it should be noted that
all of these birds were seen in
the refuge areas that are accessible
to the general public.
Last winter a Barnacle Goose was seen for several days on Rest
Lake. There is still some
discussion as to whether this
goose was a released goose or
not. There are some strong
indicators that show that it was
a wild goose and not a released
one. Also, last winter a
Black Phoebe (or possibly two)
was seen around markers 5-8.
These phoebe(s), with one or two
more who came and stayed, built
two nests (one nest was used twice)
and hatched eight or more young
(These Black Phoebe nests are
Washington records). There
are still sightings of these Black
Phoebes on the refuge, although
most of these sightings come from
Bachelor Island, the location
of the nests.
In the spring there were three more birds seen, all at the Carty
Unit, none of which are listed
in the refuge checklist.
These were the Northern Saw-whet
Owl, the Gray Flycatcher and the
Hermit Warbler. Each of
these birds was seen several times.
Two more accidental birds were seen this fall. One was
the American Golden Plover that
was seen on the Kiwa
Trail a couple of times.
The other one, which I mentioned
in my last Ramblings, was the Vermilion
Flycatcher. The Vermilion
Flycatcher was a young female
that stayed around markers 10
& 11 for four weeks beginning
the middle of October. She
stayed long enough to give the
many people who came to the refuge
especially to see this bird plenty
of time to catch a view of this
real rarity to the Northwest.
One other bird, not recorded on the refuge checklist, was seen
for a couple of days on the refuge’s
Bachelor Island, a non-public
area. This bird was the
Black-throated Sparrow—a bird
that is commonly associated with
the deserts of the southwest.
Even though I have gone to the refuge and travelled around the
auto tour route hundreds of times,
I still get a tinge of excitement
before I start around again wondering
what new, rare or unusual bird
I will see this time. If
you haven’t felt that excitement
lately, it’s time that you come
back to the refuge and see what
you can see.
Some of the interesting, unusual, and rare birds that have been
seen at the refuge this past six
weeks are: Greater White-fronted
Goose, Snow Goose, Eurasian Wigeon,
Canvasback, Common Goldeneye,
Horned Grebe, White-tailed Kite,
Red-shouldered Hawk, Sharp-shinned
Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk, Merlin, Peregrine
Falcon, Dunlin, Mew Gull, Barn
Owl, Short-eared Owl, Pileated Woodpecker, Vermilion Flycatcher, Black Phoebe,
& Townsend’s Warbler.
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