Kicking Off the 2013 Year List

Snow fell on New Year's Eve, and as the sky dimmed for the last time in 2012 we gathered our usual friends and family for our last day of the year festivities. Game playing was interrupted shortly before midnight when someone spotted movement on the deck outside. It was a raccoon - the first one my parents have ever seen in their yard. Closer inspection showed it to be a raccoon with a story to tell - he had a gash on his nose and was missing his tail. We could only imagine what might have happened to him.

Just like last year, when I awoke on New Year's Day I added the same first species to my year list without opening my eyes as I heard a Steller's jay (1) in my parents' yard. I went downstairs and ate a bowl of cereal in front of the sliding glass door overlooking the beautiful, snow-dusted landscape, every bough and branch looking like it had been dipped in ice. I added seven more species to the list, most of them the same ones that made up my first ten species from last year: black-capped chickadee (2), mourning dove (3 - was 30 last year), chestnut-backed chickadee (4), red-breasted nuthatch (5), dark-eyed junco (6), spotted towhee (7), and song sparrow (8).

We took off towards Saint Helens, passing ten species with the American crow (10) and adding a few others on our way to the Honeyman Road loop that goes through Scappoose Bottoms. Along the way we had to stop to take a few pictures not only of birds but of the snowy landscape, too:

The reservoir on Honeyman Road had at least 50 tundra swans (16) on it, a species it was nice to add so early and one that wasn't present when we had visited shortly before. Just down the road from the swan overlook was my first red-tailed hawk (17) of the year. My camera settings weren't quite right when it took flight, but I like the result in this photograph anyway:

The rough-legged hawk wasn't in his usual corner, so we thought that might be a big miss. There were other raptors around, however, including a bald eagle (20), several American kestrels (21), and a northern harrier (23). Kestrels are often quite skittish, but this one didn't move when we slowed the car down below it. It wasn't until I looked at the photo that I realized he was clutching a mouse, with blood on his beak and feathers and dripping down the pole. Such is the life of a bird of prey:

We found the rough-legged hawk (24) further down the road form his usual hang out - yay! The rest of Honeyman Road turned up our first bunch of waterfowl and three gull species, with some highlights being half a dozen Wilson's snipe (28) and a small flock of sandhill cranes (29).

The weather was crisp but it was time to get out and walk part of the Crown-Zellerbach trail. The Ross' goose from a few days before was no where to be seen, but in its place were six snow geese (35) with a huge flock of cackling geese. More of the regular wetland species were added here, most notably a Virginia rail (42) that responded to a played vocalization, one or two marsh wrens (43), and a lone cinnamon teal (46). There weren't as many sparrows and small birds in the blackberry bushes, perhaps due to all the people out walking their dogs and enjoying the sunny first day of the year. One dog walker even stopped and asked to take a picture of us crazy birders for the county webpage. Several others stopped to share their own bird sightings with us, even if it was just "a flock of 50 starlings". It's always nice to get others to think about the birds they've seen!

We drove along Dike Road next where the highlight was a male Eurasian wigeon (51), a species that eluded both me and my dad last year. From there it was a short drive to Sauvie Island, where the first stop was to enjoy a pair of peregrine falcons (54) perched in perfect lighting:

Last year, I didn't add peregrine falcon until #218 in October. These two were on adjacent poles, and then one flew to join the other, setting up this great photo op of a pair of falcons, each facing different directions:

It was hard not to stop and take another picture of the same photogenic cows, especially because of the flock of Brewer's blackbirds (55) in their field.

The next pasture over were some very strange looking llamas. They're carrying quite the load of wool, which looks so unkempt as to be growing its own layer of moss of algae:

From there it was on to the Reeder Road observation blind. The duck composition had changed quite a lot from a few days before, perhaps in part because of all the hunting that was going on nearby. We actually saw one guy across the marsh shoot and then wade out to net a duck or goose, the poor thing still struggling as he made his way back to shore. It was interesting to have lots of bird watchers with scopes and binos on one side of the lake and hunters with guns poking through blinds right across the way on the other side. Most of the birds were American coot, and gone from what we could tell were the ruddy ducks, but we did re-find the redhead (58) and canvasback (59), as well as a single female bufflehead (60) and some lesser scaup (61).

With getting a later start than planned and taking our time everywhere we went, we realized we weren't going to cover nearly as much ground as we had originally planned for January 1. Still, without traveling nearly as far as we did last year, we equaled last year's first day of the year total by about 2:30 in the afternoon. Next up was Rentenaar Road, where we had seen the Harris' sparrow on the 29th. It looked like lots of other birders had the same idea, as the road was busy from end to end. As we pondered what it was about this particular dirt road edged with blackberries that so attracted sparrows, we saw dozens of golden-crowned and white-crowned sparrows (63). All in all, we only turned up four of the seven sparrow species from a few days before. We managed to turn up two Lincoln's sparrows (64), but no Harris' sparrow for us that day.

By this time the annoying cold that has greeted me this new year was beginning to take its toll on me, so we started to head home. On our way off the island we picked up double-crested cormorants (65) as expected, but didn't see any of the hoped-for mergansers along the Multnomah Channel.

As we reviewed the first day of birding, we agreed the peregrine falcons were the highlight, but were surprised that fox sparrow hadn't made it onto the list - last year it was #10 for me. On our way home we went by a patch of bushes where we had seen a pair of fox sparrows a few days ago. They hadn't been there in the morning, but amazingly to me, there they were in the afternoon (66). Just like the rough-legged hawk and so many other birds, they astound me with their site fidelity. Since we were so close we returned to the rough-legged hawk area, a spot known to some birders as Owl Corner. While the rough-legged hawk had returned to his usual perching tree, there were no short-eared owls or any other kind of owls to be seen patrolling the fields.

That proved to be it for day one, but with an improvement of five species over last year, I was pleased enough. I perhaps paid for being out and about so much with a cold coming on, as I proved to be totally down for the count today and further birding plans had to be postponed. The only species I added on day two were evening grosbeaks (67) and varied thrushes (68) that came to my parents' feeders, seen comfortably from under a blanket on the couch. I hope to still get in a trip to Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge before I leave, and hopefully seek out a couple of the rarer birds reported in Portland recently on the way there.

I Spoke Too Soon

I thought my year list was all wrapped up, but I was wrong! I went out on a couple of birding excursions to enjoy the end of December sunshine, and turned up an unexpected surprise of a Harris' sparrow (222) on Sauvie Island on the 29th. THAT turned out to be where my year list halted for 2012 - the numbers in the last post have been updated accordingly. 

On Saturday we headed to Sauvie Island, where the first major attraction wasn't avian but mammalian, and not wild but domestic:

These cows were quite interested in us, and quite photogenic:

We looked high and low for a merlin, a big miss on the year list for both me and my dad. We did see probably a dozen American kestrels, and at least as many red-tailed hawks:

We stopped at the Reeder Road observation platform where there were great numbers and variety of waterfowl. Some highlights included a canvasback, a redhead, and two female ruddy ducks, as well as most of the other unexpected duck species. Again I crossed my fingers in hopes the same birds would be present on New Year's Day.

Next stop was Rentenaar Road, where the Harris' sparrow had been reported. As I mentioned, we found the Harris', and an amazing six other sparrow species: song, white-crowned, golden-crowned, fox, Lincoln's, and savannah. We later heard some other birders also found a swamp sparrow and a clay-colored sparrow. At the end of the road we also saw a huge flock of snow geese. One other notable sighting on Sauvie Island was the amazing number of sandhill cranes - 300 is probably a conservative estimate of what we saw.

On Sunday morning "the mountains were out" as they say during a clear day in the Portland area. From Scappoose Bottoms we could see Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Saint Helens. Here's a couple views of Saint Helens - the first one with a great egret and the second one with an American coot:

Along the Crown-Zellerbach trail, we scouted out some great birds that I hoped would be around on January 1, including the Virginia rail, red-breasted sapsucker, and yellow-rumped warbler.

Later that day I got to visit the neighbor's chickens, where this handsome fellow wouldn't qualify for a year list but was still fun to see and photograph:

That recaps the last birding of 2012, so next post will be about kicking off the year list for 2013, which I did today. We didn't have a white Christmas here in Columbia County, Oregon, but snow slowly fell for much of New Year's Eve, so we welcomed in the new year in wintery style. Photos of that in the next post too!

Three Snowy Mountains and a Snow Bunting

We made it down to Portland for the upcoming holidays, and yesterday we got out to Sauvie Island to go birding. In addition to the thousands and thousands of Canada and cackling geese, another thousand snow geese, and lots of mallards and coot, some other highlights included four redheads, three canvasback, more than a hundred sandhill cranes, and a flock of about 50 western meadowlarks. In the crisp, cool weather, the views were also awesome, with all three nearby mountains visible.

Mt. Adams with some sandhill cranes in the foreground (click to see a larger view)

Mt. Hood with a flock of cackling geese in the foreground

Mt. Saint Helens, famous for its eruption in May 1980

Then, after visiting with my niece and nephew for a while today, I had time to check out nearby Broughton Beach where a snow bunting has been hanging out. Sure enough, there he was! It didn't seem like a very nice place to be hanging out - essentially a gravel parking lot right by the airport runway - but then again I don't know much about what pleases a snow bunting (year bird 203).

I had borrowed my dad's scope and also hoped to relocate the tufted duck in the Columbia River just across the street from where the snow bunting was hanging out. 204 would put me in a tie with Dave in our year list competition, but the big flock of hundreds of scaup was on the other side of the river with their head's tucked in, leaving no chance of picking out a tuft on the back of one's head. There's still a week left to go in 2011 - surely that will be enough time for me to pick up one or two more species? Only time will tell!

Sauvie Island in the Rain

After a great day of birding on Saturday (42 species, 10 year birds, 1 life bird!) I was tempted to get out again on Sunday even though the rainy weather had returned. Sauvie Island was the destination based on recent reports of Snow and Ross' geese, both of which would be new to the year list.

The rain didn't let up one bit all afternoon, but the birding was still pretty good regardless. Once of the first birds spotted was a merlin (81), the first of five raptor species on the day as I also saw American kestrels, bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, and yet another peregrine falcon. I can't believe I've seen three falcons already this year!

The snow geese (82) were spotted where expected, but they were too far way to pick out any Ross' geese among them. There were lots of cackling geese and Canada geese mixed in nearby, however, including many dusky Canada geese. You may recall duskies are a relatively rare sub-species that overwinter here in the Willamette Valley. At least three of the birds we saw had red tags around their necks, too.

The other main highlight of the 29 species seen on the day was the surprisingly elusive mourning dove (83) - definitely would have expected those sooner on the year list - and, a little more unexpected, a couple of Eurasian collared-doves (84). Some have predicted the Eurasian collared-doves will be the next European starling; in other words, a massively invasive species here in the United States. I hope not! They are definitely spreading as new county records are occurring all over the Pacific Northwest. It will be interested to see what happens.

Sorry, no photos from the Sauvie Island trip....it was way too rainy and gray to pull the camera out, and all the birds were pretty far away too. There have been a few sun breaks in the last couple of days so hopefully well get another sunny day here before too long.

Sauvie Island in November

About 10 miles outside of Portland near the junction of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers is Sauvie Island, a rural 26,000 acres including a large wildlife refuge. Its one of the first places I remember my dad taking me birding when I was little, and is still one of my favorite spots for finding overwintering waterfowl.

Much of the wildlife refuge is closed to bird-watchers and open to hunters from November-April, but there is still a pretty driving tour around the island with several places where you can stop and overlook ponds and fields. The weather here has been very blustery and gray, so it wasn't a bad day to bird mostly from the car anyway.

The first stop I made was to look at a flock of Canada geese with some snow geese mixed in. There are many different races of Canada geese, and I'm no expert at telling them apart, but it was obvious that several different sub-species were present just by the range in their size and coloration. (Hmmm....maybe a future blog post can focus on this?) Later on, I also heard some cackling geese - they used to be the smallest race of Canada geese but have since been designated their own species.

This photo is of a cedar waxwing who was part of a large flock feeding on the fruits in a patch of leafless trees and scrub. I think this one is eating a rosehip. I'm kind of surprised to find waxwings here in the winter. Even though the Pacific Northwest is part of their year-round range according to maps on my field guides, I just don't recall seeing them here in the winter and associate them mostly with the peak of summer. The picture was nearly all black and white anyway, so turning it to grayscale just enhanced the contrast, really capturing the feeling of the day:

One of the main birds I associate with Sauvie Island is the sandhill crane which likes to stopover on the farmlands on both its fall and spring migrations. I was hoping to get some photos, but I only saw one small flock way off in the distance. When I was stopped to view them, however, I was startled by several killdeer that were scurrying about in the tilled field much closer to the car. They blended in so well I didn't notice them until my binos happened to pan over them! Look at that camouflage:

Raptors were the other highlight of the day, since they seemed to be everywhere. There was one pair of bald eagles in a field, and when the took flight one of them was trailing a big mass of vegetation. I saw four separate pairs of American kestrels, at least as many red-tailed hawks, and both male and female Northern harriers. There were several osprey nest, but none of them occupied, and no owls today either, which would have been a nice find.

In a little over an hour, I turned up a respectable 24 species. It was nice to get out and about a little bit and revisit one of my favorite local birding spots, but I can't wait until we get some sunshine and its nicer weather for both hiking and photography!