Today Bruce Labar and I met at 7 AM and headed south to Ridgefield NWR. Enroute we stopped in Centralia at a home with a feeder where Lesser Goldfinches are often found. The feeders were well stocked but the LEGO were not attending but Purple Finches were all over.

At Vancouver NWR we just did the River S Loop We enjoyed beautiful weather, were pleased to find several Trumpeter Swans among the hundreds of Tundra Swans and to find two Red-shouldered Hawks. No Sandhill Cranes were seen, though it took us a while to realize that the flock calls of the Tundra swans were not Sandhills. We did see a Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk,

a Red-shouldered Hawk,

and both light and dark morphs of Rough-legged hawks.

At Vancouver Bottoms we made about an hour long drive around the roads, found two large flocks of Sandhill Cranes, one counted at about 75, the other more distant estimated at over 100.

We also found three very early (late) Tree Swallows flying over the water.
On the way home we tried again for Lesser Goldfinches and again no luck though this time we did see three American Goldfinches, but did get nice looks at a soaring Peregrine Falcon.

All over most of both Ridgefield and Vancouver Bottoms were huge numbers of Northern Harriers and American Kestrels.