Oregon Trip: Happy Camp

With my dad retiring from his job this month, it was time to take a trip to Oregon to help celebrate. First stop was at my parents' house in St. Helens, where a skunk visited us on the first night. It's a blurry picture because I didn't want to use flash and scare it, but it's amazing how close we got - pretty much face to face! Skunks are amazingly beautiful animals up close, but a bit oddly shaped: narrow and small up front, and higher and wider in the hind quarters.

My parents' feeders remain very active, with pine siskins, chickadees, juncos, Steller's jays, flickers, nuthatches, squirrels, and rufous hummingbirds:

Next up it was time to head to Happy Camp Beach in Netarts on the Oregon Coast for a long weekend's worth of celebrations with family and close friends. We rented a cabin with space for 12 people overlooking Netarts Bay. During low tides you could see up to 30 harbor seals hauled out on the sand spit, and also visible were common loons, surf scoters, red-breasted mergansers, western gulls, and sometimes large flock of brant (137).

On Saturday two of us hiked the Cape Lookout trail, which winds mostly through the woods but also offers stunning coastal views in places to both the north and the south:

There were probably a dozen or more wildflower species in bloom, including two types of violet, candyflower, twinflower, a paintbrush species, salmonberry, wild ginger and:

Western trillium (Trillium ovatum)

Fairybell species? (Disporum sp.)

Oregon oxalis or wood sorrel (Oxalis oregana)

While we had a bit of everything weather-wise over the course of the weekend, it was warm, clear, and sunny when we got to the end of Cape Lookout.

There was a lot of bird activity, including a raft of 500 or so common murres and one or two hundred Pacific loons, all flying from south to north. A pair of Caspian terns (138) flew by, as did a pair of ravens, and we could hear orange-crowned and Townsends warblers (139) singing. There relative calm was broken up by a cackling commotion that turned out to be a pair of peregrine falcons. It was pretty awesome from such a high vantage point to look down on them from above:

When other people at the lookout left, we were quiet enough that a ground squirrel was bold enough to come out and grab a few flower buds:

We spent about half an hour out there enjoying the sights and sounds and scanning for whales. It's past the peak of the gray whale migration, but it shouldn't be over entirely and Oregon has a small coastal resident population in the summer. I was disappointed not to see any, but I figured it wasn't to be, so we started back up the trail. I stopped at another small overlook and was just framing a picture when I heard the distinct kawoof of a whale taking a breath. There was my gray whale for the day, and it was pretty close! We saw it surface four times before diving. We walked back out to the end thinking we would see it again rounding the point, but it wasn't to be, so I was thankful we saw it at all.

The weather was supposed to be even nicer on Sunday, but instead it was drizzly all day. That didn't stop a group of us from helping my dad with a COASST survey, and unlike on my always empty San Juan Island beach, we found (parts of) five stranded sea birds: one glaucous-winged gull, three western gulls, and the wing of an alcid of some kind. I was also surprised when someone found some mushrooms growing right out of the sand near the grassy high beach. I've never seen that before! I wonder if there was wood or some other organic matter buried beneath?

Another surprise sighting was a brief look at a white-tailed kite (140) cruising the cliffs above!

After lunch a few of us headed over to Cape Meares, one of my favorite state parks along the Oregon Coast. Last time I was there the Cape Meares Lighthouse had just been vandalized and was closed, but it was open again (though with some bullet holes remaining in some of the irreplaceable glass panes) and we got to take a tour to the top.

There were more Caspian terns, common murres, and pelagic cormorants to be seen, and we also found one red-necked grebe. My dad added a whopping seven year birds here since he was still missing a lot of the common oceanic species, but I just added one that I was surprised wasn't on my list already: hairy woodpecker (141).

Inshore of the lighthouse we also took the short trail to see the Octopus Tree, a large Sitka spruce with eight living trunks that is an Oregon Heritage Tree:

The weather was beautiful again on Monday, but after a morning walk on the beach it was time to head back to Portland. We stopped on the way off a tip from a friend at the Tillamook Forest Center, where we found an American dipper (142) right under the suspension bridge just as described.

My parents had somewhere to be in the afternoon, so we spent a lazy couple of hours reading outside in the warm sunshine and enjoying the local wildlife. In addition to all the species I saw when we arrived, there were also mourning doves and band-tailed pigeons, and a single yellow-rumped warbler:

My parents' little pond was also bustling with micro flora and fauna. It's kind of hard to tell in the picture, but this is one of two clumps of frog eggs that I saw, with tadpoles well on their way developing:

In addition to all the great nature sightings, we had a great long weekend filled with fun games, good food, and great company. Thanks to everyone who came, and congrats Dad on your retirement!!!

Astoria and Fort Stevens State Park

On Monday as most Memorial Day weekend traffic was heading back towards the city, we headed to the coast for a one day overnight in Fort Stevens State Park near Astoria, Oregon. It was drizzly and windy as we arrived, but we still had to stop to take in the impressive Astoria bridge that spans almost four miles across the Columbia River delta into Washington.

Nearby, among the old dock pilings, were some double-crested cormorants, Canada geese, and a flock of greater scaup.

At Fort Stevens State Park, the rain had stopped and we ate a picnic lunch perched in one of the sand dunes near the shipwreck. While eating, I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted a gray whale! The peak season for seeing gray whales off the Oregon Coast is between December and March, though there is a small seasonal resident population throughout the year made up of whales that don't make the full migration north. It was amazingly close to shore for this part of the coast, surfacing just beyond where the waves were breaking.

After lunch we hiked a few short trails in the park, and at the beach access furthest out the spit I saw a flock of more than a hundred Caspian terns (194). On the ocean side of the spit there weren't as many terns as on the inland bay side, but I got closer to one here than anywhere else:

This scene of glaucous-winged gulls with the rocky shoreline behind them to the south epitomizes the Oregon Coast to me:

In the late afternoon we checked into our overnight accommodations: a yurt.

While sitting around the campfire that evening roasting marshmallows I couldn't believe my ears when I heard a northern saw-whet owl (195, NA life bird 347)!! Another one started up it the other direction and we heard them off and on for more than an hour. I used a saw-whet owl call as the alarm clock tone on my cell phone a while back, otherwise I might not have immediately recognized it, but it sounded exactly the same. As a side note, when entering the saw whet owl on my life list I realized that the Wilson's phalarope from Eide Road seen a few days before was also a life bird!

The next day before heading back towards Saint Helens, we walked around the south jetty of the Columbia River.

It was great birding here. Some highlights were eight bald eagles, a flock of 200 sanderlings, a dozen or more red-necked grebes in the surf, and most impressive, well over a hundred brown pelicans. They are so cool to watch in flight, as they fly in a long line, often right over the waves, bobbing up and down to stay close to the surface of the water while avoiding the next swell. Here, some groups were up high and flying overhead, providing some photo opportunities. This picture reminds me of one of those shots where people superimpose the same bird in different positions, but these are all different birds just at different stages of their wing beats:

While kind of an awkward-looking species, I actually find the pelican to be a pretty beautiful bird:

They're certainly impressive due to their size!

End of April: Year List Update

I'm in the middle of spending a week down in Portland, where my parents have just sold their house to move outside of the city. In addition to packing, sorting, and doing a little bit of work for my dad, I've had the chance to go on a few different birding excursions. Sorry for the lack of pictures today - the conditions just didn't quite align very often either due to distance or weather or both!

On the drive down south I stopped at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge where unfortunately it was pouring rain. I still managed to find 18 species on the one mile Twin Barn loop trail. The highlight of the visit were the hundreds and hundreds of swallows buzzing around over the marsh near the visitor center. While the majority of them were violet-green swallows, there were also tree swallows, barn swallows, and a few cliff swallows (156) mixed in.

Yesterday my dad and I made a brief stop at Vanport Wetlands in north Portland, where a vermillion flycatcher had been spotted a couple of days before. While it remained elusive for us as it had for many other birders who tried to follow up on this report of a normally more southern species, there was still a lot of activity on the marsh. Dozens of red-winged blackbirds were singing away, with a few yellow-headed blackbirds (157) mixed in for good measure. The most plentiful bird on the water was the American coot, though there were also Canada geese, mallards, gadwall, northern shoveler, pied-billed grebes, and lesser scaup. The waterfowl highlights were several male ruddy ducks, a pair of redhead, and a pair of cinnamon teal (158). Again several swallow species were catching insects over the water, but there were also about a half dozen Vaux's swifts (159), another first for the year.

We went to check on the nearby great horned owl nest, but it appeared to be empty. On the walk over there we did have a close encounter with a surprisingly tame mourning dove, however. At Force Lake I got several close looks at a male common yellowthroat who became camera shy as soon as I pulled out my bigger lens. The only cooperative bird turned out to be this charming song sparrow:

Today we took a day off from "work" to go to Tillamook and do a COASST survey on my dad's beach. On the way out we stopped at Killin Wetlands in Forest Grove, which didn't turn up any bitterns or soras as we had hoped. The highlight of this stop for me was the chorus of about five marsh wrens singing simultaneously, with the red-winged blackbirds providing back-up. There were also some northern rough-winged swallows mixed in with the swallow crowd, and we saw a pair of Eurasian collared-doves nearby. Closer to Tillamook along the river we found a flock of about 30 greater scaup.

We didn't find any dead birds during our survey, which meant we had extra time to spend looking for live birds. At the Happy Camp beach most of the activity was near the end of the Netarts spit where we saw a few surf scoters, pigeon guillemots, and western gulls in addition to a single common loon. A group of 16 Brandt's cormorants flew by, as did a single Caspian tern (160). Everything was too far away for photos, so the only thing I took a picture of was this scene on the beach:

Next up we swung by Bay Ocean Spit as we always do, but got delayed longer than usual by the bird activity. First we came across a small flock of mallards and northern pintail, as well as a nearby group of bufflehead. Then a larger flock of ducks including northern shoveler, green-winged teal, American wigeon, and two Eurasian wigeion. Through my dad's scope we also found about 50 brant greese out in the bay, as well as our only red-breasted merganser for the day. On the mud spit were several dozen more Caspian terns, though one of the tern-like birds flying around turned out to be a lone Bonaparte's gull in breeding plumage.

The highlight of this stop for us was the shorebirds. We saw four marbled godwits, a dozen western sandpipers (161), and a group of about 45 dowitchers. My dad thinks they were long-billed, which would make them another year bird for me, but they were just too far away for me to be certain, especially with all the heat distortion looking through the scope! Still cool to see, even without knowing for sure what they were.

Our last birding stop for the day was Fenk Road, a little agricultural side road that seems to turn up more than its fair share of "good" birds. Today was no exception, as just after turning onto the road we were surprised to find a flock of about 20 least sandpipers (162) along the river bank! I don't think I've ever seen peeps along a river before. While we were watching them, a flock of about a hundred greater white-fronted geese flew in - another great find! Several ravens were also in the field nearby. The sightings didn't end there. As we pulled up to the cow barns in addition to the red-winged blackbirds, European starlings, crows, and house sparrows, I saw a single male American goldfinch (163). A little further on along the river we could see mallards, green-winged teal, gadwall, shoveler, and a couple bufflehead. Here's one of the tree swallows that was perched nearby:

The brambles between the road and the river were bustling with activity as they always seem to be, with lots of yellow-rumped warblers (both myrtle and Audubon's) as well as both white-crowned and golden-crowned sparrow. The best find of the day turned out to be the very last species we added to the day list - a single palm warbler (164). This species was reported here a couple weeks ago, and in fact this is the exact same spot I saw it for the first time in January 2010.

With the five birds added to the year list today that makes a total of 25 species added for the month of April. That's better than the 21 added during April last year, when by the end of the 30th I was sitting at 152 species on the year. I'm sure those eastern species added in January have helped boost me ahead of last year's total, but it's a good thing because during May last year is when I started my trip to Alaska! It will be tough to match the 2010 year listing efforts of May and June in Alaska during this year, but I'll be out there birding regardless! :)

Turnstone and Surfbird Poses

We made it back to San Juan Island on Tuesday and will spend a couple of weeks here before taking off for a month around the holidays. The drive back was just as rainy as the drive down, but the weather since getting home has been fairly mild and gray. With chores around the house and holiday gift shopping taking the forefront, there hasn't been much to photograph in the last couple of days. The one major exception occurred this afternoon when I saw a male evening grosbeak while walking to the grocery store! Of course I didn't have my camera with me, but I got great views of the bird, the first time I've seen one in San Juan County. The only other time I've seen this species this year was back in May in Williams Lake, British Columbia, which was a fantastic birding day where I added ten year ticks.

Since I don't have any new photos to share I thought I would post a few more pictures of the black turnstones and surfbirds that I saw in Seaside, Oregon over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. If you spend enough time doing bird photography you eventually catch them in some non-traditional poses...

Black turnstone landing

Black turnstone jumping from rock to rock

How do they balance like that? Many of the surfbird appeared "one-legged" as they tried to keep warm.

Surfbird in flight

These two species look fairly similar in flight: both have white wing stripes, white rumps, and a black terminal tail band. One apparent difference, other than the darker color of the black turnstone, is the pointed dark rump patch on the turnstone. The gray on the rump of the surfbird seems to go more straight across. The black turnstones also have white visible on their backs, while the surfbirds are solid gray.

These two species are commonly seen together in mixed winter flocks, and though they feed on the same thing (barnacles, limpets, etc.) there is one slight different between them. Turnstones remove the animals from their shell, while surfbirds eat them shell and all.

Thanksgiving Weekend ~ Birding on the Oregon Coast

I had a great holiday weekend with the family at the Oregon Coast. The coast is beautiful any time of year, and it seems like regardless of when you go you'll end up experiencing all four seasons. This trip was no exception. When we left, the temperatures were still below freezing in Portland and the roads were icy going over the coast range. (We saw some elk crossing the road just as we were reaching the coast that night!) While there we also got rain, sun, hail, and wind. We all had a great time playing board games, watching college football, and eating great food, and I enjoyed playing with my four year old niece and newborn nephew. My dad and I also had some time to get some good birding in.

On the morning of Thanksgiving we went from Cannon Beach, where we were staying, over to Seaside to check out an area that's known as "the cove". Great birds are often reported there and I've seen some there myself on previous visits. This time there were lots of gulls (western, glaucous-winged, and ring-billed), and also a big flock of black turnstones and surfbirds (year bird 224). 

They weren't at all skittish, and most remained resting while we approached to take some pictures. They looked a bit comical standing on one leg, trying to stay warm in the morning chill. The turnstones are the black ones, and surfbirds are gray:

Here is one of the western gulls. I'm still learning about gull identification as I go along, but my understanding is the mantle on western gulls is much lighter further to the north. Down in California they would appear more like in the field guides with a darker back.

 Someone saw that we were interested in birds and came over and told us about a female painted bunting that had been hanging out nearby. He hadn't seen it in a few days, but we decided to go over and take a look anyway since we were so close. There was no sign of the bunting, but there was a lot of bird activity at the site, where we saw dark-eyed juncos, golden-crowned sparrows, and a Bewick's wren, northern flicker, downy woodpecker, and spotted towhee:

It's amazing to me that Anna's hummingbirds overwinter in the Pacific Northwest. I'm not quite sure how they manage to find enough food and survive the freezing temperatures, even though I did hear about a few considerate birdwatchers that rigged up electrical wire to keep their hummingbird feeders from freezing during this last cold spell. This female Anna's found some winter blossoms right outside the windows of the cabin we were staying in:

When there were breaks in the weather we could take some walks on the beach near Haystack Rock. I was amazed on our first walk to see about twenty dead sea birds within a stretch of a few hundred yards. I was equally amazed to come back out the next day and see only two of them remained - the rest had been swept out to sea by the last tide. It left me wondering just what we would find on the COASST survey of my dad's beach near Netarts the next day. Last year, November was the record high survey when we found 11 birds.

Sunset near "The Needles", the two rocks near Haystack Rock.

The next day it was raining on our hour long drive down to Netarts, and it stopped just as we arrived. It took us a little over two hours to survey the beach, even though the tide was fairly high so the beach was narrower than during some of our other surveys. In total we ended up finding a record (for us) thirteen birds, including six northern fulmars, two rhinoceros auklets, two common murres, two gulls, and one unknown (just a wing remained). It's always interesting to me since I have yet to find any birds on my survey beach on San Juan Island, since far more birds wash up on the outer coast than in inland waters. Here is one of the dark morph northern fulmars we found:

We saw the next storm cell moving in as we were measuring our last couple of birds, and sure enough the first rain drops hit the windshield *just* as we were stepping back into the car. It was another major downpour, but it was short-lived, and by the time we were passing Tillamook Bay after a stop for a beverage and a snack the sun was shining again and a bright rainbow could be seen over the bay:

It was already getting late in the afternoon and with limited daylight we had to just head back to the cabin without doing too much birding. There were still several possible year birds to be found on the coast, though, so we decided to drive home yesterday the longer way by going through Tillamook again and taking some time to bird in hopes of finding a Brandt's cormorant, Thayer's gull, or ruddy turnstone for the year list. We saw double-crested and pelagic cormorants, common goldeneye, bald eagles, ruddy ducks, and scaup, but no year birds as we approached Tillamook. We decided to go for one more birding stop on the Tillamook Spit before heading inland and it turned out to be a great decision. As we were driving out the Spit we were very surprised when my mom spotted a pair of red phalaropes (225) feeding right along the shoreline!

It was unexpected to see this mostly pelagic species right along Tillamook Bay, and interestingly enough the only other time I've seen this bird was during Thanksgiving weekend last year when one stopped over for a few days at Westmoreland Park in Portland.

Further out on the spit we stopped to scan a large flock of American wigeon and found a single male Eurasian wigeon in with them. There was also a great egret nearby. On the start of our drive home along the bay we also saw several belted kingfishers and surprisingly a single Bonaparte's gull as well.

It turned out to be a great weekend, and bird-wise I ended up seeing 49 species in all. Next up, it's time to head back to San Juan Island, which thankfully has thawed out from the early winter snow they experienced while we were gone!

Tillamook COASST survey and birding

Last Friday I went with my dad to Tillamook on the Oregon Coast to conduct a beached bird survey for COASST and do some birding. On his beach at Happy Camp we discovered one dead bird - a somewhat gory-looking headless brown pelican, so I'll spare you the photos today. It does represent the fact that brown pelicans are still persisting on the Oregon Coast throughout the winter and spring, an unusual time for them to be here, especially since many are not finding enough to eat and are dying off.

The weather at the coast was fantastic. We were able to walk along the shoreline wearing T-shirts and no jackets - something you aren't always able to do in the Pacific Northwest in the summertime, let alone on the last full day of winter. After doing the survey while we went birding for three hours, we were also able to do so with the windows on the car rolled down. It was so pleasant and mild out, and while it was still breezy it was a very warm wind.

First we drove around Netarts Bay, where we still saw a few bufflehead, common loons, and surf scoters, but in noticeably diminishing numbers. We also stopped by Cape Meares Lighthouse, where in addition to spotting a lone live brown pelican, a pair of black oystercatchers, and one of the resident peregrine falcons, we also saw about five gray whales heading north on their spring migration. They were quite a ways offshore, but their spouts were visible with the naked eye, and through binoculars you could see their lumpy backs and once even the flukes (unusual for a gray whale) as a whale went down on a deeper dive.

Next up was Bay Ocean Spit, which often turns up some good waterfowl and occasionally good shore birds. My dad really wanted to find a tern among the gulls, and said, "I bet there's one out there," pointing to a condensed flock of gulls on a sand bar way out in the middle of the bay. His insight was spot-on, as once he got the scope on the clump of white birds he found a lone Caspian tern (117) hanging out among the western and glaucous-winged gulls. [I guess this is a good time mention that last week I also saw my first turkey vulture (116) of the season soaring over Highway 26 in Portland!]

As we continued along the spit, we saw about a half-dozen brant as well as many northern pintail, mallards, ring-necked ducks, and lesser scaup. There were also two great egrets, four great blue herons, and a northern harrier hanging out in the same area. The biggest surprise, however, was a pair of marbled godwits (118), who were both standing one-legged in the surf and only occasionally would look up, revealing their remarkably long, up-turned bills.

While driving along Tillamook Bay I saw a small, black bird deftly catch an insect and alight on a wire overhanging a creek. "Stop! Stop!" I told my dad, recognizing something out of the ordinary before getting a good look at it. It turned out to be not one, but two, black phoebes (119) - occasionally reported this far north but the first time I've ever seen this species in Oregon. They were hanging out near a big red barn and looked likely to be a nesting pair, so they may be hanging out there for some time.

Our last stop before heading to the COASST social pizza dinner was a drive along Fenk Road, which goes through some farms along a creek and always seems to turn up something good. We saw a pair of American coot, some green-winged teal, four tree swallows, and our third belted kingfisher of the day along the water. On the farm side of the road were about a thousand Canada geese out in the fields, as well as mixed flock of new fewer than four different blackbird species: European starlings, red-winged blackbirds, Brewer's blackbirds, and a couple of brown-headed cowbirds (120).

No pictures of any of the 40 species we saw that afternoon - it was a great days birding but most species were too far away to pull out the camera. Next up, I'm going to try my luck at finding a pair of wrentits reported near the Sandy River delta about 25 miles east of Portland. They have been spotted regularly over the last week, but I'm a little skeptical, as locating the small brown birds admist acres of blackberry brambles will be somewhat like finding a needle in a haystack. Wish me luck!

Day at the beach, plus gull fighting

Today the family decided to head to the beach to enjoy the unseasonably pleasant weather and also do a COASST beached bird survey near Tillamook, Oregon. Before leaving this morning a rare bird alert came in that someone had spotted a female dickcissel near Nehalem, about 25 miles north of Tillamook. On the way out we made the detour to look for it, but the meadow where it had been spotted just hours earlier was empty except for a group of crows and a handful of starlings hanging out in a nearby tree. Too bad, that would have been quite a catch!!

The birding the rest of the day was nothing to write home about - just the expected species and not even many of those. The first reports of tree swallows have been coming in this week, but despite being in some good locations to look for them I didn't spot any. I was really hoping to pick up at least one more year bird, but no such luck today! The beached bird survey didn't turn up any birds, either, but I did find this salmon (I think?) carcass being picked over by a raven and a couple of gulls:

Since I don't have many pictures to share from today, here are the gull fighting photos I took on the last trip to the beach. I'm not sure what got these two western gulls going, but they started by biting on to each other's wings as they circled around one another. Then, one started getting the upperhand, and would flip the other bird over and attempt to pin it to the ground. This continued for several minutes before something disrupted the flock and they all took off. I've seen some pretty vicious-looking bird mating, but that didn't seem like what was going on here. I've never seen anything quite like it.

Next up: I'm heading north! On Monday I'll be going to the San Juan Islands for a visit of a few days before heading to Vancouver to check out a semi-final Olympic hockey game! Internet access will be spotty but I'll try to get an update or two in during the week.

Back to Stormy Weather

While yesterday was clear, calm, sunny, and mild, today was the exact opposite: cloudy, windy, rainy, and cold - more what you would expect for the Oregon Coast this time of year. That made birding a bit more difficult but a half day out still yielded some good finds.

A drive along the estuary adjacent to Yaquina Bay led to sightings of some large mixed flocks, perhaps seeking shelter from what was a very stormy looking ocean today. One flock was made up mostly of ruddy ducks and western grebes (99), with a few bufflehead and lesser scaup mixed in for good measure. A little further along was a raft of surf scoters with one pair of white-winged scoters (100) - yay!!

Later in the afternoon I stopped by Yaquina Head Lighthouse where it was so windy I had trouble getting my car door open. I snapped this shot through the open window of the car....

...and the only reason I wanted to get out of the car was to get a better look at these common murres (101) that were all huddled together on the top of a rock. The photo is a bit blurry because it was so windy I couldn't hold the camera still enough!

Closing in on 100 in Newport

The weather for today's birding excursion around Newport could not have been better: sunshine, blue skies, and a slight breeze that put just enough chill in the air to remind you it was February and not the middle of summer. It really lifted my spirits to be out and about in the sun today!

First stop was Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, pictured above. From this vantage point over the jetties the first bird I saw was a new year bird, the brown pelican (92). Brown pelicans are not "supposed" to be this far north this time of year, but the fact of the matter is there were pelicans everywhere I looked today. A lot of people are concerned about why they never headed south this year (global warming?!) and indeed many of them are not fairing so well - I saw several dead ones today that probably succumbed to the cold temperatures or lack of food the pelicans have to deal with if they're going to winter on the Oregon coast. Many are speculating about whether or not they are going to start breeding here.

Brown pelicans were listed as endangered from 1970 until just three months ago when they were officially delisted off the Endangered Species List. This means their population has recovered from issues they faced like DDT and other contaminents, and I have to wonder if some of their range expansion might be due to a burgeoning population and not just climate change. Whatever the reason, there are certainly a lot more of them around to be seen, and they've been starting to get some major media attention. This article reports an interesting fact: from 1918 to 2002, the Aubudon Society reported less than 100 brown pelicans wintering in Oregon. This year, they estimate there are more than 3000 of them here.

But back to today's birding! After a rather disappointing stop at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, the birds at South Jetty State Park more than made up for it. In addition to the surf scoters, common loons, common goldeneyes, bufflehead, horned grebes, and double-crested and pelagic cormorants that were fishing the bay, I added four more year birds literally within the span of about 100 yards! First, I spotted a red-necked grebe (93) among the other divers. Then I zeroed in on the California gull (94) standing patiently in the parking lot. The biggest surprise of the day was a solitary horned lark (95), pictured below. And then to top it all off, a fox sparrow (96) emerged from the bushes and perched right next to a song sparrow, providing a lovely direct comparison.

Down at Seal Rock State Park the wave action was awesome, but the birding even more so. At the overlook there were about a dozen black turnstones (97) hanging out. Walking down to the beach flushed two black oystercatchers (98), the last year bird of the day.

In addition to the pelicans flying about (the above pelican photos were taken at Seal Rock), the gulls also proved to be quite entertaining. There was a mixed flock of western and California gulls that hung out nicely for some photographing. Here's a nice western gull with its reflection in the photo below - I also witnessed an intense gull fight and took some pictures I'll save for an upcoming post....all I'll say for now is I've never seen anything quite like it!

After a late picnic lunch of cheese and crackers a drive down through Waldport to near Yachats didn't yield much more in the way of bird activity, so it was back north to Newport for a stop at the historic waterfront before calling it a day. The roads were all under construction, but that didn't stop the California sea lions from hanging out on the docks in the bay. Check this guy out:

After a quick stop for groceries it was time to call it a day, and in the end I saw 35 bird species including seven new year birds. Will I be able to top 100 on this trip?! I hope so! I couldn't have asked for a better conclusion to the day than a glass of white wine and a sunset over the Pacific Ocean. I love this photo and just had to share.....Cheers!