3 California Statebirds in the Bay Area, March 2017

Another business trip to the San Francisco Bay Area in March meant another opportunity to add a couple birds to my CA statelist.  The eBird CA Needs Alert included several possibilities in the general area, including several gulls like Glaucous and Lesser Black-backed, not to mention one real rarity – an adult Slaty-Backed.  And then there was a Laughing Gull and several Black-legged Kittiwakes, though I didn’t need these species for my CA list.  I really enjoy “gulling”, so this was looking like it could be a fun trip.  Plus there was an Emperor Goose that had spent the entire winter at a golf course in the area.  But none of the birds were in the immediate vicinity where I would be working, so it would be tough to squeeze in time to chase after these targets before or after work.  So instead I decided to take most of a day off work, allowing me to bird a bit farther afield.

Now came the pick-and-shovel work of researching the sightings.  The Emperor Goose seemed like it would be easy – a quick stop at the Sharp Park Golf Course in San Mateo County would yield this rarity hanging out with a small group of Canadas.  (Though many of the eBird posts incorrectly gave its location as the ocean beach nearby.)  Most of the gull sightings were in several locations around Half Moon Bay, like the Denniston Creek mouth, Pillar Point Harbor, Pilarcitos Creek mouth, and Venice Beach, all also in San Mateo County.  And since gulls will move around a lot, stops at each of these locations were likely in order.  I’m not sure I ever found any specific directions or locations for any of these hotspots in the eBird posts, but with some GoogleMaps research I’m pretty sure I found each spot and was likely good to go. 

But just as my trip neared there were no more posts of sightings of the Slaty-backed.  And then the posts of the Emperor stopped, including one on the listserve where a birder specifically looked for the Goose unsuccessfully.  At least posts for multiple first-year Glaucous Gulls and Lesser Black-backs of all ages continued, including one post of an adult Lesser with a photo of an extremely dark bird seemingly darker than the graellsii I’m used to seeing in the East.  And then came posts of a Gannet being seen at Ano Nuevo State Park.  So I nixed my planned stop for the Goose, and decided to start at dawn at Denniston Creek Mouth at the northern end of Half Moon Bay, work my way south gulling along the way, and then eventually get to Ano Nuevo to try for the Gannet.  Although that might only be a half-day of birding, I had several conference calls I also needed to take for work that day, so that would fill up my day.

My first stop was the spot described in eBird as the Denniston Creek Mouth.  With my GoogleMaps research I could easily see the mouth of the creek just to the west of Pillar Point Harbor, but wasn’t sure how to access it.  I assumed the right approach was to scope it from the western end of the parking lot at the harbor, so I arrived there shortly before dawn to give it a try.  The tide was quite low, and there were about 300 gulls along the beach and at the mouth of the creek actively bathing.  Plus there were many coming and going, so I was likely at the proper spot.

Now the challenge was to sort through the dizzying array of species (and hybrids!) to try to find my targets.  Check out these phonescoped photos of a small portion of the flock in the distance in the early morning sun. 

The first target was Glaucous Gull – all of the sightings had been of first-year birds so I needed to find a larger gull which was mostly white with very white wing tips, and a dark-tipped pale bill.  In the East a bird like that really stands out.  But on the West coast, finding a very pale Glaucous among a sea of not-so-pale immature Glaucous-wings was a much taller task.  And then when you throw in the pale, though admittedly smaller, Thayer’s into the mix, it’s an even greater challenge.  This flock featured numerous immature Glaucous-wings and several Thayer’s, but I couldn’t locate a Glaucous.

While poring through the flock I noticed a second-year bird that caught my attention.  In this plumage the mantle is a reasonably uniform color like that of an adult, but the wing feathers are mottled more like a first-year bird.  The first thing I noticed on this bird was its mantle which was much darker than the adult California and Western Gulls in the flock.  Now that it had my attention I keyed in on size and shape – a bit bigger than California, and very long-winged.  I was starting to like this bird for a second-year Lesser Black-back.  But if so, it might well be a bird of the intermedius race.  I was only able to watch it for a couple minutes before it either disappeared in the flock or more likely flew off to the harbor.  Although I would have rather ID’d an adult Lesser, I was happy with calling this bird a second-year Lesser Black-backed Gull. 

CA was my 28^th state for this species (see my statebird map below) – not bad for a bird that not too long ago was considered to be a rarity from Europe that birders would search for principally in the northeast.

 
I spent more than an hour birding the creek area, and felt like I was seeing the same birds over and over again, so I decided to head south to the next locations.  Though I admit I was a bit concerned whether I had effectively birded the adjacent eBird hotspot labeled Pillar Point Harbor.  I assumed birds tied to the harbor hotspot were coming and going from the Denniston Creek mouth location, but with no details I couldn’t be sure.

A few minutes later I arrived at the Half Moon Bay State Park, where after paying the $10 daily use fee, I parked in the parking lot ready to make the walk north to the next two hotspots – Pilarcitos Creek Mouth and Venice Beach.  In my earlier research on GoogleMaps I could see that these two locations were just a couple hundred yards apart on either side of the mouth of Pilarcitos Creek.  That put them about a mile north of the State Park parking lot, but I hoped that a 2-mile roundtrip walk on the beach would be worthwhile.  As I made my way north I could see two flocks of gulls up ahead on the beach, so I was optimistic.

For some reason it took me quite a bit longer than expected to reach the gulls; maybe it was because I couldn’t find any hard-packed sand to walk in.  But when I finally arrived I found just 100 gulls in a tight flock on the south side of the creek mouth.  And north of the creek was an even smaller flock, and it was a bit too far for good IDs.  A quick scan through the nearer flock didn’t reveal anything of interest.  But like my stop at Denniston Creek there were always birds coming and going.  So I decided that since I had dedicated so much energy to birding this location, I may as well stay a while and hope that a rarity would drop in.  About 30 minutes later a fisherman came walking south down the beach and flushed all the gulls.  And worse yet, he decided to fish in the exact spot where the flock of gulls had been roosting.  I waited a few more minutes but the entire flock was gone.  Ugh…

On my way back to the car I met up with a local beachgoer who mentioned that all the rains that winter had actually resulted in the mouth of the creek shifting nearly a half-mile to the north.  Another reason why it took me longer to get there than expected.  I was feeling pretty sorry for myself during the long slow walk back when all of a sudden I flushed a small shorebird practically at my feet in the soft sand.  Then with another step a couple more flushed from underfoot – they were Snowy Plovers.  I stopped and carefully scanned the beach and counted 23 Plovers (plus 1 Sanderling), 1 bird each nicely resting in a depression in the sand made by a footstep of a recent beachgoer.  I took this photo of the birds on the beach using my iPhone with no magnification – can you pick out the Plovers?

Plus I was able to get some phonescoped shots of these cooperative birds, which turned out really nice if I do say so myself.

A nice consolation for what was otherwise a long and fruitless walk. 

Next I was on to Ano Nuevo State Park to try for the Gannet.  Well actually I wasn’t heading to the State Park itself, but instead to a pullout along Route 1 a short distance south of the park which would afford distant views of Ano Nuevo Island.  The Gannet was being seen perched on the island among a colony of Western Gulls, and sometimes plunge feeding in the cove near the island.  But I left out one key detail – the island was 2.2 miles away from pullout.  (I said the views were distant!)  Although viewing conditions were ideal, even with my Swarovski maxed out at 50 power the gulls were just barely identifiable specks.  And although I spent 45 minutes looking for a white speck twice the size of the gull specks, I couldn’t find the Gannet among the gulls.  Of course the bird could have been out of view on the far side of the island, or maybe off foraging somewhere else.  Or maybe I just wasn’t using enough imagination.  In any case, it was pretty disappointing.

It was now only mid-day, and I had a bit more time before my next work call.  Should I spend more time trying to find the Gannet, go back to search for more gulls, head somewhere else to bird, or just call it quits altogether?  Ending my birding day this early was my least favorite option, especially since I had only found one of my targets.  And more scanning for that distant Gannet wasn’t exactly my cup of tea.  Then I remembered Needs Alert reports of a reliable Red-naped Sapsucker inland in Santa Clara County south of San Jose.  I hadn’t originally planned on trying for this bird since I had thought I was going to spend the entire day on the coast.  But since I had some time on my hands, I decided to head inland to give it a try.

I was heading to Almaden Lake Park, and specifically the southern end of the park to the Los Alamitos Creek Trail.  The posts mentioned the bird was being seen in pepper trees adjacent to the Arroyo Picnic area.  In fact one even mentioned its “favorite pepper tree”, with a photo showing the bird perched on a large branch full of sapsucker holes.  I wasn’t sure what a pepper tree looked like, but I would think it would be pretty easy to find the tree with all the sapsucker holes.  After about an hour’s drive I arrived at the park and just as I pulled into the parking lot I could see the covered picnic area mentioned in the posts.  Soon I was standing at the picnic tables looking for trees with sapsucker holes.  But after a couple minutes of quick searching I came up empty. 

Then I did a quick Google search for images of “pepper tree” on my iPhone.  And now that I knew what pepper trees looked like, I realized there was a small grove of maybe a dozen pepper trees between the parking lot and the picnic area.  I had walked right past them!  So I headed back to those trees and began to find sapsucker holes in most of the trees.  And just a minute later I got a glimpse of a woodpecker flying between the trees with large white wing patches.  With a bit of patience the bird came into view on a trunk above me and it was indeed the Red-naped Sapsucker.  If I had completed my detective work properly and figured out what a pepper tree looked like in the first place I may well have found the bird even quicker. 

Although it’s nice to get the Red-naped as a winter rarity in central CA, I still need it in in its regular breeding range in eastern OR and western MT – two areas where I still haven’t birded.  CA is now only my 2^nd state (in addition to AZ) where I’ve seen all 4 Sapsucker species. 

Once again I had some free time, so I reached out to local birder Peter Metropulos who had given me some advice as I was preparing for my trip.  He offered to do some coastal gulling with me late in the day, so we met up at Venice Beach to try that area again.  But this time we met at the parking lot to Venice Beach, rather than taking the long hike from the State Park.  With a short walk we were on the low bluff overlooking the beach and could see a small flock of gulls a short distance to the north.  So we repositioned ourselves to be closer to the flock and soon were looking almost right down on the birds.  A first scan didn’t reveal anything unusual.  But then we both almost simultaneously picked out a first year Glaucous Gull – in virtually pure white plumage. 

And then just a minute later I spotted this second Glaucous, which was just a bit darker than the first gull.

Neither of these birds were in the flock when we first arrived – with all those birds coming and going we were very happy with our timing.  CA was my 20^th state for Glaucous Gull, several as a winter rarity.

Later we found this dark gull which we dubbed a “charcoal gull” – perhaps a Western Gull still in juvenile plumage?  But who knows…

With 3 new CA birds my statelist now stands at 387 – would be nice to get to 400 someday.  And I ended the day with 10 gull species which I believe is a personal daily record.  Sure was fun spending all that time with those challenging gulls out West.  I said I love gulling…

18 Statebirds in Washington, “Reportable Plus 15”, November 2016 – Part 2 of 2

I was really excited when a business trip to Seattle was scheduled in November 2016 giving me another opportunity to bird in the Pacific Northwest.  My WA statelist was 251 which was 3 over the old ABA reportable threshold, defined as half of the state total.  But with a little on-line research, I found that the WA statelist now stands at 511 – a whopping 15 higher than the total when the ABA threshold was calculated back in 2011.  Dividing 511 by 2, the present threshold would be 255.5.  WA is a great example of why I’ve revised my goal to be at least 15 over the old ABA threshold in each state, or “Reportable Plus 15” as I call it.  In fact, maybe Reportable Plus 15 may not be enough to keep me over threshold for long in WA.  In any case, I wanted to add at least 12 to my WA statelist to get to 15 over the ABA threshold.

Now comes the planning.  Although I had a pretty good WA list already, I expected I would have realistic possibilities for new statebirds throughout the state.  I was thinking of adding at least a couple vacation days to my trip which would allow me to get to most any portion of WA except for the far eastern end.  But now I needed to decide if I should I go east into central WA for inland targets, stay in the Cascades for mountain targets, or head to the coast especially for waterbirds and the like?  I compiled a list of targets for all these areas, and came up with pretty significant lists of possibilities in each region.  Then I set up a Needs Alert in eBird and found that not only were most of my targets being seen, but several pretty extreme rarities were being seen in Neah Bay, which is at the northwest tip of the Olympic peninsula.  The reliable Neah Bay rarities included Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Dickcissel, Ruff, numerous Palm Warblers, and as many as 6 Tropical Kingbirds.  With some more research I found that Neah Bay is quite notorious for vagrants in October and early November.  So even if these rarities weren’t still around in 3 weeks when I got to WA, others might take their place.  Plus there were several more regular targets being seen in the area as well, especially on seawatches. 

The last key factor was that I had planned to take a summer trip one year to eastern OR to work on my statelist there.  On that trip I had also planned to add a day or two in eastern WA to fill gaps in my WA list.  My targets on that eastern WA trip included several of my central WA targets of this November trip, as well as many of my targets in the Cascades.  And of course few if any of my coastal targets would be possible in eastern WA.  This was enough to help me make my decision – I would take the coastal route on this trip, especially hoping for some nice WA rarities. 

With a couple tweaks just a day before my trip started, my planned itinerary was to start on the afternoon of Day 1 pursuing two stakeout shorebirds in the Seattle area, then bird the last couple hours of the afternoon at Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park.  On Day 2 I would spend the entire day in Neah Bay trying to chase after all those landbird rarities and to do an extended seawatch.  Birding Day 3 would start in southwest WA in Westport for a stakeout Bar-tailed Godwit and nearby Snowy Plover, and then near Ridgefield NWR for Red-shouldered Hawk and Sandhill Crane.  Finally, I had a late morning flight out of Seattle on Day 4, which would give me a couple early morning hours near Seattle to fill any last remaining gaps in my list. 

With that itinerary I estimated that I might be able to add 8 birds to my WA list.  Though it would be great to add 12 to reach my Reportable Plus 15 goal.

This post summarizes Days 3 and 4 of my WA statebirding trip.  The previous post summarized Days 1 and 2, when I ended with 11 new WA statebirds.

Day 3 – Southwestern WA

My plan for Day 3 was to start at the Westport Marina to try for a Bar-tailed Godwit that had been in the area since August.  The Bar-tailed Godwit had been reported mixed in with a large flock of Marbled Godwits in the marina.  Although there were few details on the eBird reports, luckily I was able to connect with a most helpful local birder who gave me great details.  He mentioned that the Godwit was most frequently seen perched on the jetty or a floating dock in the Westport Marina.  However, that was only at high tide.  At lower tides the birds would disperse to feed, and the most recent sightings were of the Godwit feeding at Bottle Beach, more than 3 miles from the marina.  Not only is that a huge area to look for a foraging bird, but the most recent report was 2 weeks earlier.  And the most recent report of the Bar-tailed at the marina was almost a full month ago.  But the local birder suggested it was likely no one had looked for the bird recently, so not to worry about the recent lack of reports.

Needless to say it seemed like my chances of finding the Bar-tailed were higher if I could find it perched with the flock of Marbleds in the marina.  Unfortunately the tides weren’t on my side – high tide was at 5:16 AM, and sunrise wasn’t until 7:07 AM.  So by the time there was enough light to look for the bird there would be sufficient mudflats for the flock to be out feeding.  My best hope was to get there at first light in hopes that the flock was still sleeping in the marina.  Since my hotel in Neah Bay was a 3 ½ hour drive away, that meant yet another white-knuckle pre-dawn drive on rainy, dark, and twisting roads.  I left my hotel at 3:45, and luckily it only rained part of the way on the drive.  Good thing I’m a morning person.

I arrived at the marina just after 7, and began my walk out to the end of Float 21.  My birding contacs said to hope that there were no boats blocking my view across the water.  But the floating dock was full of boats, including 2 very large fishing boats at the end.  To reach the end of the dock I had to very carefully maneuver around ropes that were tying the boats to the dock.  I was able to see around the bow of one of the fishing boats to the rocks to the northeast, but saw no Godwits at all.  Then I got to the stern of that boat and looked to the southeast and spotted the flock of Godwits all sleeping on a distant floating dock.  The good news was that I had an unobstructed view of the flock.  Now I needed to pick out that one Bar-tailed in a tightly packed group of 300 or more Marbleds.

I set up the scope, again avoiding the ropes, and almost instantly spotted a bird that looked like it was paler below that the others – the key field mark at this distance.  I zoomed in to try to get a closer look, but then the dock started rocking back and forth.  Did I say it was a floating dock?  It wasn’t as bad as setting up a scope on the deck of a boat, but almost.  Finally I got a good view and I was able to see the Bar-tailed Godwit standing at the edge of the flock of Marbled Godwits - paler below, and a bit smaller than the others (WA statebird #12).  I got this phone-scoped photo – not bad given the distance and the rocking of the dock.

WA was my 3^rd state for this species – I’ve seen it in MA also as a rarity, as well as in AK as a breeder.

Not a minute after I took that photo a gull that was also perched on the dock walked through the Godwits, waking all the birds, and causing the Bar-tailed to walk to the middle of the flock.  At that point the smaller Bar-tailed completely disappeared from view.  I thought I would just wait for it to walk to the edge again, but then seconds later the entire flock took off, not to return.  Boy was I lucky – if I had arrived just a few minutes later the bird would have either been obscured, or the entire flock would have been gone.  Not to mention if the target bird had roosted anywhere in the flock except the edge closest to me it would likely have been invisible the entire time.

With 12 new WA statebirds that meant I had reached my Reportable Plus 15 goal.  And I still had a lot of birding ahead of me.

I had given myself a couple hours to bird the area looking for the Godwit, so I was nicely well ahead of schedule.  So I turned my attention to what other birds might be in the marina, and quickly spotted a sleeping flock of Aechmophorus grebes.  Clark’s was a remote possibility, so I thought I’d give it a try since these birds were quite close.  With a quick binocular scan I noticed one bird was paler than the others.  Could my luck continue?  I continued to watch this bird until it woke up raising its head.  The face was paler than the couple others nearby, but not pure white.  Then I focused on the bill – it was bright yellow; much paler and brighter than the others.  I worried a bit about the face not being completely white, but when I looked at the field guide I realized the pure white face was for a bird in breeding plumage; the paler but not white face was good for a non-breeding bird.  And the bill fieldmarks were perfect.  It was an unexpected Clark’s Grebe (#13).  That’s was one that would have been a bit more likely if I had taken the inland option on this trip, though even then not very likely.  I’ve now seen Clark’s Grebe in almost all of the states in its regular range.

Next I was on to Grayland Beach State Park to try for Snowy Plovers.  Although that might sound like a promising opportunity, in reality I was quite skeptical about finding this target.  In the several weeks leading up to my trip there had been no reports of this species at all.  It was only when I started doing research into older reports that I found the State Park could be a possible spot for Snowy’s.  The most recent report was more than a month old, and specific locations weren’t provided in most of the eBird reports.  But fresh off a successful search for this species in coastal OR a couple months earlier, I decided to give it a try.  Plus I was ahead of schedule, and now had quite a bit more time than the 2 hours I had originally allotted to search for this species.

I parked at the north end of the State Park, and started my walk south down the beach.  Although signs said it was OK to drive on the beach, I didn’t want to take any chances about getting my rental car stuck in the sand.  Plus I thought I’d find more birds by walking instead of driving.  I targeted the higher portion of the beach complete with bits of shells and driftwood, which is the typical habitat for Snowy’s.  Along the way I encountered a nice mixed flock of Canada, Cackling, and Snow Geese, along with a few Dunlin, foraging in a freshwater pond at the upper edge of the sand.  And there were a few mixed flocks of Sanderlings and Dunlins down at the surf.  But no Plovers. 

As I kept walking south down the beach I had to cross a pretty deep stream that was cutting its way through the beach to the ocean.  I only got a little wet.  But then I came to a larger one that seemed a bit too deep to cross.  I couldn’t realistically go any farther south (unless I changed footwear), so I set up my scope to look farther down the drier part of the beach.  Once again I didn’t see any Plovers.  Then I scanned toward the surf and I could see a small group of Sanderlings feeding in the distance near the mouth of this stream.  Then I noticed two birds a bit farther from the flock, though still close to the surf.  I zoomed in and they looked like they could be Plovers.  I walked down to the beach and got closer views of 2 Snowy Plovers foraging in the wet sand (#14).  I was surprised to see them so close to the surf.  I got this phone-scoped picture of one of the birds which was banded.

I checked by GPS and I was 1.3 miles south of the parking lot.  Still ahead of schedule I turned my scope toward the ocean to do a bit of a seawatch.  But after a few minutes of seeing almost nothing passing by, I called it quits and headed back.  Luckily the weather had improved dramatically so it was a nice walk down and back.

My next planned stops were about a 2 ½ hour drive south and east to try for Sandhill Cranes and Red-shouldered Hawks.  (I’m never proud of my carbon footprint on these trips.)  Both birds had been reported regularly at Ridgefield NWR, though the Cranes were reported in only small numbers.  However much larger numbers of Cranes were being reported a short distance to the north at Woodland Bottoms.  Plus there was one report of a Red-shoulder there as well.  So since I was ahead of schedule, and Woodland Bottoms was on the way to Ridgefield NWR, I figured I would stop there first.

While on the road of course I always keep my eyes open for birds that might be along the way.  At one point I stopped for a large flock of Cackling Geese in a wet pasture.  And at that same location I spotted a raptor perched up ahead on a telephone wire.  It turned out to be just a Red-tail not its smaller cousin.  But the prize along the way was in the small town of Raymond.  As I slowed for a red light a small Accipter flew right in front of the car – it was a Sharp-shinned Hawk (#15).  Although this is quite a common species nationwide, it has been an elusive one for me in several states.

 
I eventually rolled into Woodland Bottoms in the early afternoon hoping to find Sandhill Cranes.  This is a flood plain of the Columbia River, with many acres of farm fields.  The suggested strategy to find the Cranes is to drive the roads in the area in search of which field the birds happen to be feeding in at that time.  As I drove into the northern part of the area I quickly spotted numerous raptors feeding low over the hayfields.  And then I noticed an occasional Great Blue Heron out in the fields which initially grabbed my attention, but I couldn’t turn them into Cranes.  I then climbed the road up to the top of the dike and headed north in the general area where the one recent Red-shouldered Hawk had been spotted.  I pulled over to scan the fields from this higher vantage point and as I rolled down my window I heard a bugling Sandhill Crane (#16).  I found a flock of 95 in the field a short distance away feeding with a flock of about 200 Ring-billed Gulls.  WA was my 36^th state for this species, including several states in the east where it is expanding its range.

 

I continued to search for Red-Shoulders in the trees lining the river but with no success.  Though I did end up with a nice raptor tally otherwise – 6 Red-tails, 5 Harriers, 4 Ketrels, and 1 Rough-leg.  Plus I spotted a flock of 9 Great Egrets out in one of the pastures.  There must have been shallow drainage ditches out there that attracted all these waders.

Next I headed a short distance to the south to try for Red-shouldered Hawk at what I hoped to be their more reliable location.  Initially this species wasn’t even on my target list, as the maps in the field guides indicated that the western race of this species didn’t get any farther north than OR.  But they showed up in a number of my eBird Needs Alerts, almost always at Ridgefield NWR.  And although they were reported at multiple eBird locations, the “epicenter” of these sightings appeared to be the River S area and the auto tour route there.  Though since most sightings were of just 1 bird (occasionally 2 or 3), this certainly wouldn’t be a slam dunk.  But with lots of time on my hands I figured I would just keep driving the auto tour route until I found one.

The tour route was full of cars, mostly either folks out for a drive in the nice weather or photographers with their long lenses trying to catch a photo of tame waterfowl close to the road.  I on the other hand was scanning the trees in the riparian woodlands nearby for a small perched raptor.  In the first half of the drive I spotted several Red-tails and some hunting Harriers, but no Shoulders.  Then I reached the southwest part of the loop that drove right through a stand of trees which I suspected might increase my chances.  And sure enough I soon spotted a small perched raptor in the distance that turned out to be an immature Red-shouldered Hawk (#17).  A bit farther along I spotted likely the same bird perched in the woods right along the road.  I got this backlit photo holding my phone up to my binocs.

I’ve now seen Red-shouldered Hawk in all of the states in its regular range – both the eastern races and now the western elegans race. 

With some time on my hands I first turned my focus to trying for Swamp Sparrow in the wetlands along the road.  But like my efforts the day before at Neah Bay, again I had no luck.  Though I did have a couple small groups of Sandhill Cranes here along the way.  Then I spent some time studying the numerous Cackling Geese – I love hearing their higher pitched calls.  I got this phone-binoc shot of this most cooperative flock (of the minima race I believe) right along the road.

I still had a couple hours before sunset and decided to take a short walk in the Carty Unit of Ridgefield NWR which the guides mentioned was one of the few locations in WA where you could find White-breasted Nuthatch of the Pacific aculeata race.  Although I already had White-breasted Nuthatch on my WA state list, those are inland birds of the tenuissima race.  There is talk about splitting this one into multiple species someday, so perhaps aculeata might be a separate species worth banking for now. 

I took the short walk from the parking lot over the train tracks to the riparian and oak habitat on the other side to start to look and listen for Nuthatches.  One of the first birds I had there was a calling Red-shouldered Hawk in the distance.  Good thing I didn’t have to worry about Blue Jays imitating their call out here (or do Scrub Jays imitate them as well?).  A slow walk through the oaks yielded numerous Scrub Jays, and a number of Woodpeckers.  And each time I heard tapping I tried to track down the source to see if it might be a Nuthatch – but the best bird I could find was a Red-breasted Sapsucker.  At one point heard a pair of Scrub Jays calling, and a White-breasted Nuthatch joined in.  Not the most satisfying observation but good enough to bank an aculeata White-breasted Nuthatch.  As I drove out of the area toward my hotel another Sharpie flew by – a nice way to finish the day.

I ended up with 6 new WA statebirds on the day – I had thought only the Crane and Red-shoulder would be likely additions so this was much better than I expected.  Another great day of birding!

Day 4 – Greater Seattle in Route to the Airport

With a late morning flight I had a couple hours of early morning birding time available on Day 4.  But since my hotel the night before was a 2 hours to the south of the SEATAC airport (with no traffic!), I would likely need to limit any stops I would make to somewhere in the greater Seattle area.  My original plan was to look for Surfbirds in downtown Seattle.  But I saw this species as a bit of a surprise at Neah Bay, so it was no longer a target.  I had a feeling I was fresh out of species to chase after within my narrow time and geographic window – a victim of my own success perhaps.  But I decided to check the eBird Needs Alert one last time, and found recent reports of a Snowy Egret south of Seattle.  The bird was first found feeding in a flooded field near the town of Orting 3 days ago, and re-found 2 days ago, though there were no reports the previous day.  I had a feeling that might mean the bird had moved on, but since I had no other targets to chase, and the spot was roughly on my route to the airport, it was worth a shot.

The eBird reports gave excellent micro-directions to the location – a flooded field between Orville Rd. and a set of soccer fields just south of Orting.  I arrived at the location about 30 minutes before sunrise hoping the see the bird quickly and then continue to the airport.  After all, despite the low light conditions an all-white wader should be pretty obvious.  But there were no waders in sight.  And worse than that, the flooded field where the Egret had apparently been feeding had pretty well dried out.  I waited a bit longer but still had no target bird.  One report mentioned the bird had flown off to the northeast, so I drove around a bit in that direction, found some drainage ditches and a runoff retention pond that could be suitable habitat, but still no waders of any type.  I then drove a short distance to the south to continue to search the road-side drainage ditches, but came up empty again. 

It was just about time to head off to the airport, and I decided to make one more search at the soccer fields.  As I pulled into the parking lot I noticed a white spot in the field in the distance.  Could it be?  I put it in my binoculars and it was the Snowy Egret (#18).  It must have just flown in.  Not only was this another eBird rarity, but also a review species for the WA rare bird committee.  The bird was most cooperative, and I got these two phone-binoc shots of the bird.

What a way to end the trip!  I even made it to the airport in time despite miserable rush hour traffic.

The Trip by the Numbers

I had a total of 122 species for the trip, including 18 new birds for my WA statebird list.  Needless to say that was way over the 8 additions I hoped for when planning the trip.  That gives me 269 in WA, which is 21 over the old ABA threshold.  WA is now my 39th state where I’ve reached my Reportable Plus 15 goal – I have 6 others that are over the threshold though not 15 over.  Of the 18 birds I added only 4 are possible on that future eastern WA summer trip, meaning there is still a lot of statebird potential in eastern WA.  Then again, maybe I don’t need to take an eastern WA trip now that I’m now safely Reportable Plus 15 in WA.

Although ordinarily the highlights of my statebirding trips are related to reaching new levels in my statelists, for this trip the key highlights were all the rarities I was able to see, some of which I found on my own.  These included 12 birds for which details were required in eBird –

• Pink-footed Shearwater – found on my own
• Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel – found on my own
• Snowy Egret – stakeout, WA review species
• Bar-tailed Godwit – stakeout
• Red Knot - stakeout
• Prairie Falcon – found on my own
• Tropical Kingbird - stakeout
• Palm Warbler - stakeout
• Prothonotary Warbler – WA review species found on my own, 4^th WA state record
• Common Yellowthroat – found on my own
• Harris’s Sparrow – stakeout (but not new for my WA list)
• Orchard Oriole – WA review species, 1 found on my own and 1 stakeout

 A truly remarkable trip!

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 9^th 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 38^th 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 11^th 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 36^th 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 46^th 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…