Hi All,
Since the White-winged Dove appeared to be staying put over at Yachats on the coast, and since I needed it on my state list, today was the first day convenient for me to attempt to try for it. I had called Chuck Philo from Toledo the night before to see if he was up to birding, and he was game. So we met at the Marine Science Center and headed south. Chuck is lots of fun to bird with, and we hit it off together well. For those of you who drive from Corvallis to Newport, you will be happy to know that the construction along Hwy 20 is finally completed on the new portion of the road (most of it?), so one does not have to drive through Eddyville any longer. I also noticed quite a few dead animals along this and other roads today: 4 deer, a few raccoons, opossums, and one skunk.
We drove straight to Yachats and found the house on the corner of Aqua Vista and hung around for maybe 10 minutes, but the guest of honor was not there, so we headed just over to the Adobe Motel where someone had reported a Lapland Longspur recently. We flushed it at the westernmost grassy area, and I was able to snap a few pics of this cooperative and beautiful bird. We then walked back to the White-winged Dove area, and after another 10 minutes or so, he made his appearance, so then we headed back north.
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| Lapland Longspur |
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| White-winged Dove |
When we reached Waldport we decided to check out Eckman Lake for the Snowy Egret or any other good birds. It was high tide so there were reasonable expectations he would be around the lake now, so we looked in all the likely places, only finding Great Egrets. As Roy Lowe had recently reported hearing Barred Owls at his residence in view of the water, we went there to ask him if he knew where one might roost, but he has only heard them over the more recent years as well as seen some in the area. So we left, and after scouring the lake once again, the bird finally made his appearance as well. Here is a long shot across the lake, but you can see the size difference between him and a Great Egret.
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| Snowy and Great Egrets |
We stopped next at South Beach to look for Snowy Plovers, and found a small group of 5 north of the parking area. The bird on the Left in the first pic has a purple band on his Right leg (and a silver one on his Left which I can see from another photo) - (Dave, can you help us out?). We could not see this at the time either in my camera or through the binocs. Amazing what enlarging a photo can do.
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| Snowy Plovers |
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| Snowy Plover |
We then headed back to the Marine Science Center to try for the Lark Bunting, but as birders had not seen it recently, my hopes were not too high. There were plenty of other passerines coming to seed in two places, but he was a no show. Chuck went home then while I went over the the jetty road. Chuck and Roy had talked about some Cacklers along that road, and I found them at the gull pull out. I guess there has been some question as to what subspecies they might be, so here is a pic of one in case someone wants to take a stab at it.
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| Cackling Goose |
As the wind had picked up, I drove up to Boiler Bay, pretended I was Phil Pickering, and hoped there was a good showing of pelagic birds. After 5 minutes of cold wind and little besides a few scoters, loons, grebes and gulls flying around, I decided it was not worth my time, so headed north again.
I next stopped at the Lincoln City sewage ponds. There has been some reasonably good birds here of late. I have not been there in some 20 years, so had some trouble remembering just where they were, but eventually found them. There was a nice representation of ducks: Shovelers, Mallards, Green-winged Teal, Pintails, Ring-necked Ducks, and a few Hooded Mergansers. I suppose the best bird was a Black Phoebe which is likely resident there.
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| Black Phoebe at Lincoln City Sewage Ponds |
It took me about a half hour to get beyond Lincoln City due to all the traffic. (I wonder what it is like on weekends?) En route home I stopped at the Sheridan Sewage Ponds to look for the Surf Scoters Paul Sullivan reported just yesterday, but I could not find any. There were plenty of shovelers and ruddy ducks and lesser numbers of mallards, coots, lesser scaup and ring-necked ducks as well.
From there I took a back way over to BSNWR. Along Livermore Rd I stopped here and there to look for Horned Larks and Longspurs without success. I did photograph this Merlin though. At BSNWR there were 3 Western Grebes and the other expected waterfowl.
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| Merlin along Livermore Rd |
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| Western Grebe at BSNWR |
Since I had purchased my present camera earlier this year, I have been wondering just how many species I have photographed here in Oregon, not only this year, but since I have been birding in the state in the 80s. I have been curious because of the entry level of 100 for the OFO website which Paul Sullivan edits. I really had no idea just how many I have on that list, so last Saturday evening I started making the list, even digging out old family albums. I finally found an old album with bird pics. When it was all tallied, I had > 220! I added 4 more today, so looks like I will be able to enter the competition for that category.
Any guesses as to what the Atmospheric River will blow inland over night? Red Phalaropes?
