WildBird

A New Birding Site

A New Birding Site By Nathan Cornwell Age 12 One day after school we got the birding bug. We had to go birding, right now! We had a time frame, so we eliminated stops that were farther away. That left us with an iffy site and a really good one, that unfortunately was open to hunting right now. Then I asked, why don’t we find as new place to go birding? So mom dug out a list of birding areas around Eugene. We decided on Willow Creek, an obscure little network of trails close to our favorite site. At first, we couldn’t even find the entrance. I’m sure glad we did. It was a gold mine. We ran into some Bewick’s Wrens right off. After that we found a feeding flock not thirty feet from the entrance. Then we entered some woods and saw a raptor flying over. As we neared the end, we heard some odd squeaks. After we entered the field that was adjacent to the forest, mom found out what it was. After mistaking the noise for a flock of Pine Siskens, she found a Red-Headed Sapsucker in the trees. Also occupying that field were three raptors. In the next field there were some apple trees that held a feeding flock of Chickadees, Wrens, Warblers, and Nuthatches. As we walked back to our car we found several feeding flocks and a few Hutton’s Vireos. As we got back towards our car we found lots of Flickers and Waxwings. We had overlooked this birding site for six years. I implore others who live in Eugene not to. Here’s how to get there from the Eugene Airport: heading east on Airport Road, turn south on Hwy. 99. Turn south onto Beltline South and follow that until you come to a T intersection. Turn right on Hwy. 126 and then turn right on Willow Creek Road. Follow that until you come to another T intersection and turn left this time. Turn left again on Willow Creek Road and the preserve is on the outside of the first curve you come to.

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