[obol] Bird Highlights of Washington County

[Greg Gillson]

OBOL,

I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with Don Roberson's Monterey 
County, California, web pages.

One of the many parts of that web site is a listing of noteworthy bird 
sightings and photographs from the county. It is a very local county field 
notes column, updated whenever the author has time to write down the new 
sightings and upload photographs, often monthly. These are notes that might 
not be of significance statewide or regionally, for instance, but locally 
significant. On the other hand, the Monterey area gets more than its fair 
share of state and national rarities that are included on Don's site.

I have attempted to copy that unique format with: "Washington County, 
Oregon, Bird Highlights: 2006"
http://thebirdguide.com/washington/WashCo_2006.htm

It can be found on my general "Birding Washington County, Oregon" pages:
http://thebirdguide.com/washington/washington_co.htm

I have entered sightings from June, July, and August, 2006. It includes 
Darin Rhein's Little Blue Heron photos and David Smith's Eurasian 
Collared-Dove photos--both first county records. Other photos include 
Semipalmated Sandpiper, Purple Martin, Gadwall chick, Lazuli Bunting, and 
Ruddy Duck, all documenting an interesting sighting, though not necessarily 
very good photographs in themselves. I will likely go back on BirdNotes, the 
OBOL archive, and my own personal notes and photographs to fill in the 
earlier part of the year.

In discussing the unusual sightings I have created sidebars with web links 
to more information, such as the Washington County Annotated Checklist, trip 
reports and more information on the new Tualatin River NWR, and an updated 
site guide to the Timber area of the Coast Range.

It is my hope that these web pages will encourage more birding within this 
very small, populated county that really has some excellent birding.

Greg Gillson
The Bird Guide, Inc.
greg at thebirdguide.com
http://thebirdguide.com