September 7th

Philip Colburn

7 September 2008

Time:  1245 hours – 1330 hours

Location – Minto-Brown Park along the Willamette River

 

I saw a Red-Tailed Hawk soaring very far above us.  Never flapped its wings, was just gliding, similar to the flight patterns of the osprey.  Also saw some kind of fishing spider, with incredibly long legs designed for both walking on water similar to a water bug and snatching insects off the edge of the water to eat.  His body was light green patterned with black bands and he had shorter legs that ended in small round orbs which were apparently used for mating.  When coaxed onto a finger, he immediately sent out a silk parachute, hoping to catch the wind and sail off the finger, which worked amazingly well, flying off of Dave’s finger and onto me.  Also saw 5 to 10 small snails clinging to rocks just under the water level.  They would not come out of their shells, despite an unreasonable amount of coaxing.   The trail was completely framed by the Himalayan Blackberry. The berries were in full season, there were hundreds of berries within easy reach of the trail.

Soaring Red Tailed Hawk courtesy of http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/BirdsL-R/RedTailedHawkMT.jpg