Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Fourteen Statebirds in Southwestern Oregon, September, 2016


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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