Oregon is one of the last 4 Lower 48 states where my state list is still below the old ABA reporting threshold. (SD, IA, and MT are the other 3.) With my OR state list at 235, I was 24 below the threshold of 259. But my real goal these days is to be at least 15 over that threshold, or “Reportable Plus 15” as I call it. So that meant my target was to add 39 species to my OR list. The biggest gaps in my OR state list are associated with species principally found in eastern OR. I’ve never birded in that drier part of the state, and one year I hope to do some extensive birding there as part of an early summer trip. Although I should add quite a number of species to my OR state list on that trip, I’ve been concerned that I might not be able to add enough on that trip to reach my Reportable Plus 15 goal. Looking through my possible eastern OR targets I anticipated that I might only get 32 new birds on that trip, meaning I might indeed come up a bit short of my goal.
So I needed to make at least one more trip to
OR, especially to focus on species not likely to be seen on my eastern OR summer
trip. Back in February 2016 I took a
2-day trip in southwestern OR as an extension to a work trip to the Bay Area,
picking up 17 new birds for my statelist.
With another business trip to the Bay Area planned in September, I
started to do some research regarding potential statebirds for another western
OR trip. Not surprisingly there were quite
a number of possibilities, and the vast majority were most likely along the
coast – either shorebirds or ocean birds.
Now it was time to start my research. I made a list of potential targets, and
researched recent sightings in eBird.
Plus I reached out to a couple local contacts from my February trip for
their input. It turned out that although
my list of possible targets was quite long, very few were likely. Many of the possible shorebirds didn’t stay
long so it would be difficult to chase after stakeouts. And most of my ocean targets were only
realistically possible on a pelagic trip.
So although I had already made my plane reservations to be able to add
in the extra birding time in OR, I was now second guessing my plans. But I couldn’t revise my flights without
incurring hefty charges, so I decided to make the best of it.
My planned itinerary for Day 1 was to start
at the southwestern corner of OR pre-dawn to try for Barred Owl, and then generally
work my way north along the coast toward Coos Bay throughout the day. My plans for Day 2 were not nearly as clear,
since I had more locations to bird than I had time for – by at least 3
hours. But some of my Day 2 targets were
also possible on Day 1. So if I could be
successful for at least a few targets on the first day, or even early on Day 2,
I could cut out certain stops and maybe squeeze everything in. Certainly meant I would need to be flexible in
developing my Day 2 itinerary. Regardless
of my route I needed to make my way back to my hotel in Medford that
night. Plus I didn’t need to leave until
mid-morning on Day 3 so I would have at least a couple early morning hours
available that day as well. With that
itinerary I hoped for 5 new birds for my OR list. And even if statebirding wasn’t as successful
as I would like, at least I would get a chance to do some nice birding in parts
of the country that I don’t get to often.
Day 1
My first planned stop was to try for Barred
Owl pre-dawn just southeast of Brookings along the coast just north of the CA
line. With a 2 ½ hour drive ahead of me,
that meant an early 3:30 AM departure from my Medford hotel. I arrived right on schedule an hour before
sunrise and headed to Peavine Ridge Road, a spot recommended by local birders. I had tried for the Owl here during my 2/16
trip with no luck. But that was a late
afternoon, so I hoped I’d have better success pre-dawn. On a more positive note, since that first
attempt was in daylight hours that gave me a better idea as to where I might
want to stop and play tape on this trip.
Winds were calm, making it ideal for the owls to hear my tape, and for
me to hear them respond if they were so inclined. As I prepared for my first stop I realized it
had been quite a while since I had tried to attract Barred Owl using tape, and
wondered what the best strategy might be - would they call right away if they
were nearby, would I need to play an extended amount of tape before they would
reply, or maybe they wouldn’t call at all and just fly in undetected to check
me out. My first couple stops were
unsuccessful, playing tape off and on for a couple minutes at each spot. Then on my third stop I played one call and a
Barred Owl responded instantly with a two-note hoot (OR statebird #1). In my statebird map below I’ve seen or heard
Barred Owl throughout much of the eastern part of its range, and now 2 states
in the expanding northwestern part of its range.
I was now ahead of schedule and had to wait
for the sun to come up for my next stop at the mouth of the Winchuck
River. Targets here were Elegant Terns
that had been spotted there just a couple days earlier. But a quick scan of the river mouth revealed
a nice flock of gulls, but no terns. So
next I was off to the south jetty of the Chetco River and Brookings Harbor
again looking for terns as well as any other pelagic species that might be
nearby. But it was pretty slow, with
just a few gulls and cormorants milling about the river mouth.
Next I headed to Chetco Point a short
distance to the north in Brookings where I planned to do an extended seawatch
to try for various pelagic species. I
had birded from this spot on my 2/16 trip, and had good success with Kittiwakes,
Gulls, and Alcids flying by that day.
But this time birding was pretty slow, hampered by limited visibility with
a low fog in the area. Then on one of my
scans I looked far to the south at the Chetco River mouth and spotted a flock
of terns at the jetties. I first thought
I saw a couple larger paler terns, followed by a larger number of smaller
terns. I’d like to think that I was
seeing 2 targets – a few Elegant Terns and a larger number of Common Terns. But that was almost exactly a mile away. And even at 50 power that was just too far to
feel good about my IDs. It would only be
a 10 minute drive to get back to the south jetty, in addition to the 5 minute
walk back to my car. Could I hurry back
to the jetty in time to see these birds?
Since I wasn’t seeing anything else from the point, I decided to give it
a try.
Fifteen minutes later I pulled into the
jetty parking lot and before I had even gotten out of the car a tern flew right
by – even looking through the windshield I could see the orange bill of an
Elegant Tern (#2). I got out of the car
and counted at least a dozen more Elegants milling about, but no Common
Terns. Within a few minutes the Terns
began to fly over the tip of the north jetty and settled down onto the
rocks. I got this passable phonescoped
photo of at least 28 Elegant Terns on the jetty in the distance.
I then scanned the rest of the jetty tip
and picked out one dark-billed tern – a Common Tern (#3). There had only been a couple recent sightings
of this species along the coast so I was happy to have picked this one
out. And of course it was a good thing I
had come over to the jetty to correct my initial distant tern IDs from Chetco
Point.
Next I turned my attention to the river
mouth and spotted another flock of Elegant Terns flying into the river. I had 62 birds in site at one time – not clear
how many were actually present in total.
That’s a lot more than any of the totals reported from the OR coast so
far this fall. A bit later while panning
through the flock I spotted a larger, darker bird chasing one of the terns – it
was a Jaeger. It passed by quite closely
and I could confirm it as an adult Parasitic Jaeger complete with the slim body
and pointed central tail feathers (#4).
That was one I had hoped for during a seawatch but was not really
expecting. OR is now my 9th
coastal state where I’ve seen this species, along with seeing it as a nester in
AK.
Then not a minute later I picked up a
second Jaeger – this one was an immature sitting on the water. Initially the “gizz” of this bird was that it
was larger and heavier-bodied. I watched
it fly around a couple times before it re-landed on the water. Again I felt like this one had a heavier
body, so I concluded it was a Pomarine Jaeger – a pelagic species I had not
expected at all to see from shore (#5).
I spent a little more time looking out over
the ocean but continued to see the same birds.
Just then I heard what sounded like an Evening Grosbeak calling from
behind me. I turned and heard the bird
again, this time I realized it was calling from planted conifers in the jetty
campground. That would be another
target, but since it would be quite a rarity especially for the coast, I
decided to track it down. Within a
minute I knew which spruce it was calling from, and found a flock of Starlings
in the tree, but could not find a Grosbeak.
Although the bird kept calling, and sounded like an Evening Grosbeak, I
concluded that it was just a Starling giving an excellent imitation.
As I left the jetty I was only a couple
hours into my 3-day trip and I had already added 5 new birds – the total I had
expected for the entire trip. Good thing
I had such an excellent start, because I didn’t find any new species on my next
7 stops. First there was a stop at Gold
Beach where I hoped for potential new “rock-pipers”, but came up empty
(hampered by very thick fog). Then I
headed to the China Creek portion of the Bandon State Natural Area where Snowy
Plovers were to be reliable. Although I
spent a couple hours there, including walking a mile into a very strong wind, I
couldn’t find any Plovers, or any other target shorebird for that matter. (Later I found out that the local Snowy
Plovers had not even been using that part of the beach recently.) Though the wind did create some very
interesting formations in the sand.
 |
| Wind was blowing from left to right in the photo |
Then it was on to the south jetty in Bandon
where an old boat ramp behind the Coast Guard station was a favorite spot for roosting
Turnstones at high tide. I timed my
arrival to be right at high tide, and amazingly the boat ramp was indeed full
of Turnstones – I made an exact count of 50 Blacks. But alas I could not spot my target Ruddy
Turnstone.
The next target was my nemesis bird –
White-tailed Kite. I spent several hours
looking for this species during my 2/16 trip both inland and on the coast with
no luck. This time I spent about 2 hours
driving and stopping along the 42N and 42S loop east of Bandon through great
habitat but again without any success.
My next stop was at Pigeon Point in the
Empire portion of Coos Bay, specifically looking for Marbled Godwits seen there
a couple days earlier. I arrived at
mid-tide as was recommended, but the only shorebirds I could locate were a
Least Sandpiper and a few Killdeer. Since
there weren’t many shorebirds to look at, I turned my attention to the flocks
of Canada Geese in the area to see if an odd goose might be mixed in. And sure enough in one of the first flocks I
looked at I spotted a smaller dark immature goose walking on the mudflats. At first I thought it was a “Blue” Snow
Goose, but the ID just didn’t seem quite right.
Then it wagged its tail and it was all white - I couldn’t remember
immature Blue Geese having white tails. And
the body and mantle feathers had a bit of a scalloped look which seemed odd as
well. I didn’t have a field guide with
me, so I took a few phonescoped photos of the bird to look at that evening to
confirm an ID.
That night I compared my photos to drawings
in the Sibley guide and thought that they were a good match for an immature
Emperor Goose. But that would be quite a
rarity – not only with respect to the southern location, but also the very early
date in the year. So I concluded it must
just be a Blue Goose, though sent the photos to a local birder to confirm the
ID. He in turn forwarded the photos to
others and everyone said it was indeed an Emperor Goose. The bird was seen again in the area the next
several days, including by many at the local Oregon Shorebird Festival. Although this was a super rare bird, it
wasn’t new for my OR statelist – I had seen a long-staying adult bird on
4/12/98 in the Sandy River in northwestern OR.
Certainly a nice consolation for dipping on the Godwits.
My next stop was along the Coos Bay waterfront
by the Motel 6 that was recommended as a good spot for Willets. I arrived at mid-tide and found a few peeps
and yellowlegs, but no Willets.
Then I headed back down south to the
Riverside Road access at Bandon NWR. I
got there about an hour below low tide (lower tides were recommended for
shorebirds), but there were none in sight.
Then with a bit of scoping I noticed a very distant flock of maybe 200
peeps feeding in one part of the marsh. But
they were too far away to ID and too far to walk to, so I passed on checking
them out. But I did take this picture of
a sign at the overlook to remind me of what might have been - Long-billed
Curlew, Whimbrel, and Ruddy Turnstone drawn on the sign were all targets.
It was now late in the day and I was
heading back to my motel in Coos Bay when I realized I would go right past the
Willet spot along the way. So I made
another quick stop and sure enough there was a Willet! (#6) Wonder what makes this specific part of the
waterfront so interesting to migrant Willets.
I’ve now seen “Western” Willet in most of its inland breeding and
coastal wintering range, plus a couple inland states as a migrant. And I’ve seen “Eastern” Willet in all the
states in its regular coastal range.
I’ve also seen “Western” Willet in a few eastern states – I need to keep
track of those in case they get split into separate species someday.
Since my first stop at the Motel 6 was too
early for the Willet, I thought maybe my first stop at Pigeon Point was too
early for the Godwits there as well. So
I doubled back to Pigeon Point to give it another try, but to no avail. (I didn’t see the Emperor Goose on that
second trip either.)
I was very happy to have ended the day with
6 new birds for my OR list – 4 of which would not be likely in eastern OR
(Elegant and Common Terns, and Parasitic and Pomarine Jaegers). Not to mention finding the Emperor Goose!
Day 2
Now it was time to fine-tune my Day 2
itinerary given the results of my first day of birding. First I didn’t need to start pre-dawn to try
for Barred Owl, meaning I could start my first daylight stop at least an hour
earlier, not to mention I could sleep in a bit.
But since I missed both Snowy Plover and White-tailed Kite I still
needed to try for both on Day 2. And
then I needed to decide whether to head to Fern Ridge near Eugene. Recent reports at this wetlands included 3
targets with varying potential - Common Tern
-reported several times recently; American Bittern – several reports but
with no specific locations; and Baird’s Sandpiper – none reported in the last
several days. Given that I found a
Common Tern on Day 1, and that was the most likely bird at Fern Ridge, I was
leaning toward not making a stop there.
But time would tell. Although I
still needed to be flexible, I planned to start along the coast and head north
to Newport, then head inland with a stop for the Kite, maybe an additional stop
at Fern Ridge, and end the day at the Merlin rest stop to try for Blue-gray
Gnatcatcher.
My first stop was at Siltcoos Beach where
Snowy Plovers were reported recently. I
arrived there a bit before sunrise, and as I crested the dune to the beach I
captured this beautiful view looking to the East. Little did I know that I would need to heed
the old warning – “red sky in morning, sailors take warning”.
I came down the dune and started walking
south down the rack line in hopes of finding a Plover. And almost instantly a Snowy Plover fluttered
away from me and landed a short distance away (#7). I looked over to the spot where it landed and
picked up another bird, and then another, and eventually counted a group of 10
birds roosting together in the rough sand.
If only I had known how easy these birds would be here I wouldn’t have
walked 2 hours on the beach yesterday in those strong winds. The very tame birds afforded numerous “Kodak
moments” including this phonescoped shot – I didn’t realize one bird was banded
until I looked at the photo on my computer screen.
I’ve now seen Snowy Plover in 12 states – a
nice mix of inland nesting locations and coastal nesting or wintering sites.
It wasn’t even sunrise yet and I already
had my target from this location. Given
that my itinerary for the rest of the day had more stops than I had time for, I
wondered if I should take advantage of being ahead of schedule and quickly go on
to my next stop. Or should I spend more
time at the beach, looking for other shorebirds perhaps. Plus despite overcast skies visibility was
quite good so maybe I could do a seawatch.
I decided to spend at least a little more time at the beach and
continued to head south a short distance toward the river inlet. Along the way I found a roosting flock of
Sanderlings that I guessed numbered at least 300, but despite several checks
all were just Sanderlings.
I had almost reached the inlet when I heard
an odd call overhead – it was a Plover, a bit similar to Black-bellied, but
certainly not a Black-bellied. I finally
found the bird as it flew north up the beach – it was a Golden-Plover, but what
species was it? I got pretty good
binocular views of the bird as it flew by and noticed legs sticking out beyond
the tail – by itself not a definitive field mark but more likely making it a
Pacific. I then listened to call notes
on my BirdTunes app and the call was more like Pacific than American. Along with the fact the Pacific is more
likely, I concluded it was a Pacific Golden-Plover (#8). Although that one was on my target list, it
was not one I had expected given the few coastal sightings on eBird, and no
sightings at all in OR for more than a month.
I had now reached the inlet, and turned
west to get closer to the water’s edge.
Here I encountered another flock of Snowy Plovers – 9 birds this
time. And found a few more Sanderlings
roosting in the dry sand. Then I heard a
shorebird flock calling in flight seemingly circling nearby, perhaps looking
for a place to land. Calls were mostly
Leasts, but there was another call mixed in.
My first thought was Baird’s which I’m reasonably familiar with. Luckily the flock continued to circle, and I
eventually found them as they flew by. I
spotted one larger peep in with the smaller Leasts – a Baird’s Sandpiper
(#9). Although not a rarity, it wasn’t
one that had been reported many times recently since I was near the tail end of
their fall migration. OR was my 38th
state for this species – I especially still need this species as a fall migrant
in a number of southeast states.
Next I turned my attention to a seawatch – skies
were overcast and visibility was good, so I was hopeful I could see a number of
birds passing by. Within just a couple
moments I started to see a number of scoter flocks going by, and then I picked
out the first of many small groups of shearwaters, along with the occasional
alcid. Interestingly virtually all the
birds were flying north. I needed any
shearwater except Sooty and Cassin’s Auklet for my OR list so the morning
flight made me hopeful. But despite lots
of birds moving by I could only pick out the more expected Sooty Shearwaters
and Common Murres. With all the activity
I would have loved to continue the seawatch, but after an hour the fog was
starting to roll in reducing visibility, so I decided to call it quits here and
move on to my next location.
A recent listserve post included a sighting
of an American Bittern just a short distance to the north in the Ocean Dune
National Recreation Area. Bitterns
aren’t generally very reliable at any given location during non-breeding
season, and especially during migration, so I initially didn’t get too excited
about this report even though it was of one of my targets. But the post included this short comment
about the Bittern – “as usual”. With a
bit of research I found this spot on eBird and there had indeed been a few
Bittern sightings here over the years.
So maybe this could be a reliable spot, and decided to give it a try. I pulled into the small parking area for the
pond and took a short walk into the wetlands.
It was a small pond with mudflats around the perimeter where I picked up
a couple Snipe, Long-billed Dowitchers, and a Greater Yellowlegs. They were quite cooperative, and I even got
this passable photo holding my phone up to my binocs.
But this sure didn’t look like habitat
appropriate for a Bittern. I must be at
the wrong spot. I looked over to the
east and noticed a few cattails sticking up among the grasses – maybe that
would be a better area. I walked over to
this new spot and as I approached I could see another even smaller pond ahead
with some promising wetland vegetation.
And just as I got to the edge I flushed an American Bittern (#10). It’s usually helpful to look for your targets
in the correct habitat. The OR American
Bittern was also somewhat of a milestone for me – it was US total tick number
#13,000.
My next stop as I worked my way north was
along the north jetty of the Suislaw River where there had been a couple recent sightings of Marbled
Godwits. When I arrived at the mud flats
near the base of the jetty the tide was quite low, and there was too much mud –
I needed a higher tide to concentrate any migrant Godwits that might be passing
through. So I headed to the end of the
jetty to do a bit of a seawatch while waiting for the tide to increase. It was still pretty early in the morning so I
was surprised to see so many people in the area. It turns out that a fishing boat had washed
ashore during last night’s high tide and it was still high up on the beach -
quite an attraction for the locals. I
got this distant shot of the boat along with a Coast Guard helicopter overhead
evaluating the situation.
The seawatch was a bit slow with few birds
flying by. But I did notice quite a
number of alcids on the water a short distance off-shore. Though with the swells and foggy conditions,
not to mention the distance, it was next to impossible to confirm any IDs. So I decided to try to take some phonescoped
photos of the birds in hopes of enlarging them on the computer screen to make
more definitive IDs. The vast majority
of the photos were worthless, but a couple provided barely passable images that
could be turned into Marbled Murrelets with a bit of imagination. And alas I couldn’t turn any into my target
Cassin’s Auklet.
I returned to the mudflats and still the
tide was too low for any concentration of shorebirds. But given my full itinerary I decided to not
wait any longer and headed to my next stop, which was Eckman Slough and Eckman
Lake. A Snowy Egret had been reported at
this wetlands almost daily for quite a while, with several photos posted of the
bird very close to the viewing spot along the road. However, there had been no reports (positive
or negative) from this location for 10 days.
As I pulled up to the location I could see a wide expanse of wetlands
off to the north and the lake to the south, with the road conveniently cutting
between the two. As soon as I pulled
over I saw a couple egrets in the marsh adjacent to the road – but they were just
the expected Great Egrets. I then did a
quick scan across the marsh and noticed a Great Egret dropping out of sight
into the far side of the marsh on the other side of the Alsea River. And then right behind the Great Egret I
briefly saw another Egret that also dropped out of sight into the marsh – this
one looked smaller. Plus it gave the
smaller Snowy-like look as it tucked its wings in just before it landed. I was pretty sure it was the Snowy Egret, but
sure wished I had had a better view. I
spent the next 30 minutes scanning the marsh hoping to get additional views,
and spotted a few more Great Egrets drop into that same section of the marsh,
but never saw any fly out. It was just
starting to rain, and with conditions deteriorating, I decided to count the
bird as my 11th new OR statebird, and move on to my next stops
before the rain got too bad. Later that
day there was a report that another birder spotted the Snowy Egret in that same
portion of the marsh – so I felt better about my conclusion. OR was my 36th state for Snowy
Egret; I’ve now seen these species in most all the states where it is regular
and a few others as a rarity.
My next two planned stops were in Newport
where there had been a couple recent Ruddy Turnstone and Whimbrel
sightings. But by the time I arrived it
was raining quite hard, and the strong winds at the coast meant the rain was
almost horizontal. I waited in my car
for a few minutes for the rain to abate, and at one point got out at the jetty
just in time to spot a flock of 22 Elegant Terns fly in off the ocean. But conditions continued to be pretty awful,
so I decided to leave the coast and head inland for my next couple stops where
the weather would likely be quite a bit better.
After about an hour’s drive east I had
arrived in the Hoskins/Kings Valley area where there was a report of a
White-tailed Kite about a week earlier. Although
I wouldn’t normally chase after a single Kite sighting, the observer of this
sighting said it made “me think that WTKIs nested in the area this year”. So I thought this one might have
potential. But I spent about an hour
slowly driving the roads in good habitat within a couple miles of the earlier
sighting, and yet again came up empty on a search for White-tailed Kite in
OR. Ugh…
At least the rain had stopped.
In my original itinerary I planned to try
to squeeze in a stop at the Fern Ridge wetlands just west of Eugene, especially
since it would require only a short side-trip off my route. But I had already seen all three of my targets
that had been reported there recently (Common Tern, American Bittern, and
Baird’s Sandpiper). So luckily I could
drive right past Eugene and head south to the Merlin Rest Stop on I-5 in search
of Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.
The Merlin Rest Stop is well-known not only
for the Gnatcatcher, but also for Oak Titmouse and California Towhee. The latter 2 birds are both year-round
residents in the area, and I had added them to my OR list on my 2/16 trip. But that had been too early in the year for
Gnatcatcher. So now that I was back in
southwestern OR in the warmer months, I was hoping to add the Gnatcatcher to my
list of possible targets. But the
problem on this trip was that it might now be too late in the year – perhaps
the Gnatcatchers had already migrated south.
The last eBird Gnatcatcher report from Ashland, another reliable spot
for Gnatcatcher, was 10 days earlier, and the last report from the rest stop
was 16 days earlier. But there were
several October eBird records in earlier years, so I tried to remain
optimistic.
There are rest stops on both sides of the
I-5 highway at Merlin, but the better habitat is at the one on the northbound
lanes. Luckily reversing directions
meant only about a 5 minute trek south past the rest stops to the next interchange,
then a short ride back north to the one on the other side of the road. I got out of the car and was greeted by some
Chickadee calls and then a few Spotted Towhees.
A short walk through the rest stop proper later yielded a small flock of
Golden-crowned Sparrows, but none of my target birds. Then I made my way to the back of the rest
stop to a small paved road that paralleled the highway. Habitat here looked to be excellent, and I
started to walk north down this road. Here
I began to pick up several very cooperative Oak Titmice and more Spotted
Towhees. Then I stopped to watch Acorn
Woodpeckers that were gathering acorns from the oaks in the rest stop, and then
transporting them to cache trees to the east.
As I was I trying to estimate the number of Woodpeckers involved (I
guessed 7), I heard 2 diagnostic mew-like calls of the Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher
(#12). I spent the next 20 minutes
trying to get a visual on the bird, but couldn’t even get it to call again. Not the best observation, but good enough to
check it off. OR was my 46th
state for this species – it’s certainly not very likely in the remaining 3
northwestern states.
It was now just a few minutes before
sunset, and as I made my way to my hotel in Medford, I reflected on yet another
successful day of birding. Despite a lot
of rain, and missing a few targets, I was very happy to have added 6 new birds
for my OR list.
Day 3
I had to leave Medford mid-morning on Day
3, meaning I could squeeze in a few early morning hours of birding in the
Medford/Ashland area. I had no remaining
additional targets in the area, so instead decided to first try for better
Gnatcatcher sightings at Emigrant Lake just southeast of Ashland. Then if time allowed I might make a quick
stop at Agate Lake where several shorebirds had been reported recently – none
were targets but maybe other species had dropped in recently. Plus the entire area has had Kite sightings,
though none recently. So I had one more
chance for my nemesis bird.
I arrived at the south shore of Emigrant
Lake a bit before dawn, and began to walk down the old roadway that now ends in
the lake. This had been a good spot for
Gnatcatchers earlier in the year, and also had good riparian habitat where I
hoped I might pick up some migrant passerines.
I spent a bit over an hour here and didn’t find any Gnatcatchers, but
did have quite a number of migrant warblers.
Interestingly they were almost all Yellow Warblers (I estimated 12),
along with 1 Orange-crowned. The habitat
was also quite birdy in general, and it was fun to do some low-key birding
without having to search for specific targets.
On the down side, the lake water level was many feet lower than when I
was there back in February – was this due to a drought or was that a typical
level at this time of year now near the end of the summer dry season?
I still had a little time remaining, so I headed
to Agate Lake for a quick search for shorebirds. As I arrived I noticed a number of sparrows
flying around the parking lot. I hopped
out to take a look and they were Lark Sparrows, including one in full song
(#13). Although that was one I needed
for my OR list, I hadn’t put it on my target list since it had only been
reported occasionally in western OR of late, and in fact not at all at Agate
Lake for more than 2 months. Plus Lark
Sparrow is a common breeder in eastern OR and I expected to find it on my
eastern OR trip. So a nice addition to the
list, but not a very strategic one so to speak. I've now seen this species in much of its regular breeding range in the west, and in several northeastern states where it is a rarity.
Then I turned my attention to shorebirds,
and began to scope the edges of the small lake.
I picked out a few on the far side but they were really distant, and not
likely to be anything unusual. So I
continued to scan toward the upper reaches of the lake when I came upon a group
of 4 White Pelicans (#14). Just like the
Lark Sparrows, I hadn’t planned to search for this one since it is a common
eastern OR breeder. Though I had
overlooked the fact that a small flock of Pelicans had been reported here
regularly – if I had known that I would have made it a target. I’ve now seen White Pelican in all the states
in its regular range, along with several eastern states where it is a rarity.
The Trip by the Numbers –
I finished the short trip with 101 species,
14 of which were new for my OR statelist.
Needless to say that’s way more than the 5 I expected. Plus of course I can’t forget finding the
Emperor Goose, even though it was not a new statebird. My OR statelist is now at 249, which is just 10
short of the old ABA threshold and therefore 25 short of my Reportable Plus 15
goal. Perhaps most importantly many of the
new statebirds I added on this trip are not likely on my future eastern OR
summer trip. And with my new statelist I
now estimate that I can add at least 27 new birds on that eastern OR trip,
which should put me over my goal in OR, albeit by just a narrow margin. That is if I ever get around to scheduling
that trip…
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