Red-winged Blackbirds and Sunny Weather...

Cattails Filling a 3-Yard Tipper During Nesting Season at Vernonia Lake...

So, a walk around Vernonia on a Sunday afternoon with sun that was actually warm, revealed people cleaning up their yards from the winter storms. I shared the trail around the lake with a new friend. A fragile ice coat on the lake cracked and shimmered under the rays. Moles are pushing up dirt all over the grass by the lake. A river otter was so busy moving about a few days ago, I wonder if he even noticed me.

The male red-winged blackbirds are beginning to stake out their territory, preparing for the return of the females. Hopefully the lake will be filled prior to the nesting season, (as it leaks into the Nehalem), so the nests with eggs and young will be safe from drowning. KUPL sponsors a fishing derby each year, and unfortunately, lake filling prior to that event has caused casualties among the nesting blackbirds in past years. The bullrushes and habitat were chopped down in many places during the nesting season also, to make room for fishing fathers and family. When I saw the destruction, I called the Mayor, as it is against Federal Law to violate songbirds' habitat or young.

Mother blackbirds panicked with rising waters, as the lake filled that year, and the previous one. Two park hosts told me in these two separate years that the nesting season was over, when online searches verified otherwise, and blackbirds flew at lake trail-walkers to protect their young. (These birds raise more than one batch of young.) The mayor never called me back. I finally called a string of Wildlife agencies, until one promised to send Vernonia a warning. I was gone last summer, but I will send a copy of this blog to KUPL and hope that they will schedule their Fishing Derby before or after nesting season so as not to disturb the 'nursery'. The mother red-wing blackbirds took a back seat in consideration a city worker explained to me, as they had been busy with construction, etc. The day before I wrote the following poem after a walk at the lake, where I viewed the wildlife from a park bench.

Life in Vernonia…….by Pamela Cohen 5-16-07
Blackbird, Blackbird brown and plain,
Clutching on the bulrush cane.
Sleek and black, and very able
Your mate lands on the picnic table.
Warbling, flashing orange red
Lifting wings and bobbing head
What a saucy pair you make
Residents of Vernonia Lake
Eagle, osprey, darting bat
Northwest forest habitat,
River otters swimming, too
Sharing fish with that canoe
Floating, floating on the waves
Wind and sparkling sun behave
To paint a picture like a Kinkaid print
Waiting for that moonlight hint
Black bird, black bird some domain!
A kingdom viewed from your bulrush cane.
And for the moment, life is good
In Vernonia, ‘the little town that could.’

(Did you know that in some areas, the cattail or bulrush is grown to purify the water? Used for weaving. Bullrush or bulrush or cattail. A papyrus plant.)