Here is an email summarizing my weekend sightings along the Oregon Coast, staying within about 1/2 hour north and 1/2 hour south of the campground where I camped out friday and saturday night. This email was sent out to the Oregon listserv (OBOL), and is copied directly. I'll be heading back home to Wisconsin in about a week.
---------------- This past weekend I camped at Sixes Campground both friday night and saturday night. I saw my first whale on saturday from Port Orford Marina. It was within about ~300ft from the main pier. I've kept an eye out for whales since I got here in April, and finally got to see one :) Russ helped with me with a little bit of where the whales breed and where they're found, and I observed a Gray Whale today. Beautiful but brief looks at a barnacle-covered back. Another very special treat was finding not only several MARBLED MURRELETS and RHINOCEROUS AUKLETS, but also found my lifer CASSIN'S AUKLETS (two sitting side by side on the water). The gulls along the coast are so fantastic!!! HEERMAN'S GULLS are in very good numbers in Bandon, Port Orford and Gold Beach. Nearly all of my birdwatching today (Sunday) was with Schubothe. What a pleasure it is birdwatching with another fun and local birdwatcher! Here are my lists from this past weekend, in the order that they were experienced. Also, the attached link is a sampling of photos from this past weekend: http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/ocean_samples The pale gull in this gallery caught my attention while in the field observing it. It had California Gull characteristics, but had different "levels" of contrast than the surrounding gulls. Alvaro Jaramillo from California helped me with the identification on this gull. He noted the tail pattern, and pale inner primary windows (if you split the wings in half, notice the immediate outer half of the wing which is pale on the back edge). To elaborate on the tail pattern that Alvaro mentioned - juvenile California Gulls have heavily mottled tails with a dark tail band, and juvenile Ring-billed Gulls have an incredibly pale (and faintly mottled) tail with a dark outer tail band. Still within the first link that I added in this email, these next two links show a comparison of juvenile California Gull with the less-common for the area Ring-billed Gull. Both photos were taken within a few minutes of each other at the same location, with no adjustments to detail or lighting for ID purposes. California Gull (juvenile) http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/126866189 Rig-billed Gull (juvenile) http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/126861100 Saturday morning I woke up with the birds at Sixes Campground, and headed to Port Orford for about 1/2 hour of birdwatching *Battle Rock Wayside Park* Number of species: 10 Surf Scoter 2 Pacific Loon 25 Common Loon 2 Heermann's Gull 250 Western Gull 10 California Gull 450 Common Murre 15 Pigeon Guillemot 6 Violet-green Swallow 1 Cliff Swallow 5 I then headed down to Gold Beach to see the numerous Osprey, Heerman's Gulls and Brown Pelicans in their amazing feeding frenzy at the mouth of the Rogue River! *Rogue River mouth* Number of species: 17 White-winged Scoter 1 Red-throated Loon 2 Brown Pelican 30 Pelagic Cormorant 1 Great Blue Heron 1 Turkey Vulture 2 Osprey 10 Red-tailed Hawk 1 Heermann's Gull 60 Western Gull 15 California Gull 40 Common Murre 80 Marbled Murrelet 2 Cassin's Auklet 2 Rhinoceros Auklet 1 Cliff Swallow 10 White-crowned Sparrow 1 Drove around to the Marina section of Gold Beach, and birdwatched for probably 15 minutes while having lunch. Eight Brant were seen! *Gold Beach Marina* Number of species: 4 Brant 8 Semipalmated Sandpiper 2 Western Sandpiper 30 Least Sandpiper 1 On my drive back north on the shore, I stopped by Port Orford again and visited the Marina. I can't get enough of the gorgeous gulls along the coast! *Port Orford Docking Station* Number of species: 11 Brant 1 Pacific Loon 1 Common Loon 2 Western Grebe 3 Brown Pelican 16 Black Oystercatcher 3 Heermann's Gull 160 Western Gull 30 Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) 5 California Gull 20 Common Murre 1 Rock Pigeon 4 This Sunday morning I met up with Harv around 7am along the Beach Loop Rd in Bandon and visited China Creek. We found a stunning, little Snowy Plover, in addition to two groups of Sanderlings that were feeding and dancing with the wave movements *China Creek* Number of species: 6 Snowy Plover 1 Sanderling 40 Heermann's Gull 5 Western Gull 15 California Gull 60 Barn Swallow 5 Harv and I went to the inner part of the Bandon Jetty to check for "rock pipers". They were seen shortly after our arrival. If you check out my first link, you'll see a picture of both Ruddy Turnstone and Black Turnstone in flight! *Harp's Restaurant Dock* Number of species: 7 Double-crested Cormorant 3 Black Oystercatcher 2 Wandering Tattler 2 Ruddy Turnstone 3 Black Turnstone 15 Heermann's Gull 1 Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) 5 California Gull 5 Harv and I made two visits to Bandon Marsh this morning. Here is a compilation of the birds we observed during both sightings. We had a flyover, perch, then fly away Red-shouldered Hawk! *Bandon Marsh NWR* Number of species: 28 Mallard 17 Double-crested Cormorant 1 Great Blue Heron 1 Turkey Vulture 2 Osprey 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 Western Sandpiper 200 Least Sandpiper 20 Western Gull 4 Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) 4 California Gull 15 Band-tailed Pigeon 8 Eurasian Collared-Dove 1 Mourning Dove 1 Steller's Jay 1 American Crow 2 Violet-green Swallow 2 Barn Swallow 8 Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2 Bewick's Wren 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet 1 American Robin 1 Cedar Waxwing 2 Spotted Towhee 1 Song Sparrow 2 Western Tanager 1 Purple Finch 1 Pine Siskin 1 American Goldfinch 1 We ended the day by visiting Coquille Point in Bandon. All of the sightings you see from China Creek onward (all today) were within the immediate vicinity. Bandon sure has an incredible diversity of birds and habitat to offer! One adult male American Kestrel flew by! Another bird of interest was a fly-by Lesser Goldfinch. I recall seeing them at Dorris Ranch in Springfield (the one time I've seen them). Note the wings in this photo. The slightly-off American Goldfinch call and black wings with the white insides led me to Lesser Goldfinch at Coquille Point http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/126332842 (from Dorris Ranch in Springfield) *Kronenberg County Park--Coquille Point* Number of species: 15 Western Grebe 1 Brandt's Cormorant 10 Double-crested Cormorant 5 Pelagic Cormorant 20 American Kestrel 1 Heermann's Gull 20 Western Gull 20 California Gull 50 Glaucous-winged Gull 1 Common Murre 1500 Pigeon Guillemot 4 American Robin 1 Cedar Waxwing 1 Song Sparrow 2 Lesser Goldfinch 1 Good birding, Erik Bruhnke Cottage Grove, OR NATURALLY AVIAN - Bird photography and guided bird hikes www.pbase.com/birdfedr [email protected] ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
